


Five Times the Pack Saved Stiles and One Time Stiles Saved Each Member of the Pack

by occasionalwriter



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Angst, Blood and Injury, Buried Alive, Canon-Typical Violence, Curses, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Relationships, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Hurt Derek Hale, Hurt Stiles, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Mates, Pack Bonding, Pack Feels, Protective Derek, Protective Pack, Pulling Pain, Spark Stiles Stilinski, Temporary Blindness, Temporary Character Death, Torture, Werewolf Bonds, Werewolf Mates, Witches, everyone gets hurt, everyone is in pain, poisoned, spells
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-20
Updated: 2015-11-01
Packaged: 2018-04-22 14:40:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 23
Words: 82,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4839212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/occasionalwriter/pseuds/occasionalwriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For every time the pack has had to save Stiles, he's saved them twice. He thinks that he's pulling his weight pretty evenly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Bear Claw Trap

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

“Just stay still, idiot. This is half your fault.”

“How?! Tell me how this is, in any way my fault Ethan. I followed you and Danny out here to help you train your boyfriend so he could be in the pack. This is literally a punishment for helping you.” Stiles complained, suspended upside down as some hunter’s trap had a clamp around his leg, metal teeth biting into the spot right above his ankle while the other end of the rope was tied up around a tree branch. He couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t in pain until he noticed Ethan’s hand on his shoulder, half holding him up so the teeth didn’t rip at the skin while also pulling pain but he couldn’t get much leverage, barely able to reach Stiles even with his arms fully extended above his head.

“Danny, call Aiden and Lydia to come help us get him down.”

Danny nodded while looking worriedly up at Stiles, pulling his phone out and dialing as he asked, “How’re you doing up there?”

“All the blood’s rushing to my head and Ethan’s pain draining me, I’m feeling loopier than ever right now.” He grunted as Ethan switched hands, his weight pulling the metal clamp deeper into his leg and the pain taking advantage of the one second it had to rocket through him, “Fuck, fuck, fuck. Tell me they’ll be here soon Danny.”

“They were driving past the house, they should be here within ten minutes.” Danny assured, glancing up again and wincing, “You’re losing a lot of blood, Stiles. So, keep talking to us. Stay awake.”

Stiles gulped and nodded a little bit, feeling like his head weighed a hundred pounds and the rest of him was light as a feather. Then he thought about how pissed Derek was going to be that he set off one of the traps even though Derek specifically trained them all to notice them by painstakingly showing them every single one he’d encountered in the preserve. 

“Stiles!” Ethan snapped, pulling him out of his thoughts, “Stay awake, they’re like five minutes away. Less if they run fast.”

“How bad is it?” Stiles asked, trying to look at Ethan’s arm to see exactly how much pain there was.

“Pretty bad.” He admitted, “Nothing that can’t be fixed though. Don’t worry.”

“You telling me not to worry is one of the least comforting things I’ve heard. Danny, is it worse than he’s saying?”

“It’s… I don’t know, I can’t really tell. But just stay calm, if you start thrashing around then it’ll be about fifteen times worse.” Stiles did his best to nod again, acknowledging Danny and trying to crane his neck up this time to look at his leg. All that earned him was a worse headache that made Ethan grunt.

“They’re here.” Ethan said. And within seconds Aiden and Lydia were stumbling through the trees and looking up at him as well. “It’s a claw trap, and it yanked him up. I’ve been supporting some of his weight and taking the pain but I’m pretty sure he’s about to pass out.”

“Someone’s going to have to get up there and untie it while there rest of us support him on the way down. Then we’ll have to figure out how to unhinge the clamp.” Danny continued.

“Okay,” Lydia processed, “Aiden, go up and get the rope unhooked. Danny, Ethan, and I will help him down. I don’t know if we should unhinge it yet though. We’ll have to look at how much blood it’s keeping in. You with us Stiles?”

He grunted in response and heard Aiden move to climb up the tree while Danny moved to help him down, Lydia right after him. 

“Okay, do it slowly, if you can at all.” Ethan said.

“Okay, I’ve got it.” Aiden started to let the rope down and Stiles fought through a few waves of sickness as he felt Danny’s hands connect with his back, soon after that Lydia holding his legs and then he was on the ground. 

Once he was level, it almost seemed worse with his head finally not being ridiculously full of blood and the feeling starting to return to his legs, only partially thanks to Ethan but still a lot more discomfort than a couple seconds ago. 

He realized he was losing pockets of time when Aiden was next to him without Stiles remembering him getting there. Aiden pushed Ethan’s hand off, telling him to take a break because he was looking paler than usual.

“We’ll have to take it off, I don’t think it should pull at him anymore when we get him up. I can’t figure out how to get it undone though. See anything Danny?”

Danny started turning it a little bit before finding what looked like the solution and pointing it out to Lydia. Then, after what Stiles assumed was another moment of lost time, the two were pulling it off him and then wrapping Lydia’s scarf around his leg, trying to keep the blood inside.

“We need to get moving. His heart is slowing down.” Aiden said, “One of you should call the rest of the pack. This is a new trap and Derek will want us all together once he’s done yelling at Stiles.”

“I’ll call the pack, and Derek. Danny, you call Deaton because that’s going to need stitches.” Lydia instructed. Then Aiden and Ethan were lifting up Stiles between them, doing some odd carry sort of thing that clearly wasn’t working out all that well, “That’s dumb, just one of you carry him, you’re completely capable.”

“We’ll get tired if one of us is carrying him and taking the pain.” Ethan said. But then Aiden shuffled Stiles into his own arms and pointed Ethan to grabbing his leg, taking half the pain while Aiden took the other half. “Okay, got it. We’re good. Let’s go.”

Less than fifteen minutes later, Stiles in and out of consciousness throughout the journey, they were at the pack house. Derek storming out the front door as they were walking up. He took a look at Stiles and then turned around, holding open the door as Aiden carried Stiles in and set him on the couch, Erica and Boyd coming down the stairs with Isaac trailing after and jumping over to him.

“I’ll take his pain for a little bit. Ethan and Aiden, you both look wiped. Get something to drink. Is Deaton on his way?” Isaac asked.

“He’s pulling up.” Derek said, standing by Stiles’ feet as Isaac sat at his head, hand on his shoulder and black lines creeping up his arm. “What happened?”

“Ethan and him were going to help train me. We got about fifteen minutes in and Stiles turned to look at one of us and then all of a sudden he was dangling in the air. It looked kind of like a modified bear trap and it got him right above the ankle. We called Aiden and Lydia to come help him down.” 

Derek nodded and Deaton came walking in, not looking like he was hurrying at all as he brought his big black case over next to Stiles’ foot. “How’re you doing Stiles?”

Isaac looked down when he didn’t answer and shook his shoulder, “Wake up bro, the doc is here.”

Stiles’ eyes opened up a little and he groaned as Deaton started poking at the four deep holes on each side of his leg. “It needs stitches, but it doesn’t look like the metal was laced with anything so I don’t think he’ll get an infection. It’s going to be hard to walk on for a while though. It cut through a lot of muscle.”

Derek nodded again and turned to Erica and Boyd who’d moved back a bit once Deaton got there to give him room to work, “You guys take a turn taking the pain. Both at once should help and Isaac’s done enough for now. Lydia, when will the rest of the pack be here?”

“Soon.”

“Okay, well, if everyone’s coming we’ll have a pack meeting.” Aiden and Ethan walked back out then, looking fully recovered, “You two, help Isaac get some food ready. Lydia, see if you and Danny can sketch out what the trap looked like so we can keep it in our log.”

Then it was just Deaton, Derek, Erica, and Boyd to hover around Stiles. “How’re you doing Stiles?” Erica asked, holding onto Stiles’ good leg.

“Woozy.” He admitted, “Sorry Derek, should’ve seen it.”

“It’s fine.” Derek said gruffly, “How much longer Deaton?”

“Only one more puncture to sew up. Then I’ll wrap it up and be gone.”

Boyd shook Stiles’ shoulder again, “Think you should stay awake a little while longer. You need to eat something before you pass out for the night.”

“I’m not going to pass out.” He mumbled. Boyd gave him his best impression of Derek, which was a half glare half amused look that silently told Stiles that Boyd felt he was entirely full of crap.

Just as Deaton was wrapping up his leg Scott and Allison walked through the door. Scott coming over and fumbling around Stiles asking him what had happened, if he was going to be okay then flipping around and asking everyone else in the room the same questions.

“I’m fine Scott, just some flesh wounds.” Stiles assured him. “Boyd and Erica here are helping me out right now though.”

“How bad is it really?” Scott asked, turning to Deaton as he stood up.

“He’ll be alright. He’ll have trouble walking for a couple days and it’ll probably bleed off and on but in a week or two it’ll be almost back to normal.” Deaton said, pulling off his gloves and picking up his bag, “He can come by if there are any problems.”

Just as Deaton walked out the door the twins and Isaac came in to inform them that dinner was ready and it was getting cold with every second that passed. Derek nodded to them, telling them they’d be in in a minute and looked at the door as Jackson, Cora, and Peter came walking in.

“Stiles, you good to get to the table?” Erica asked, her and Boyd both moving their hands away at the same time leaving Stiles to feel the full brunt of pain for the first time. 

“Shit.” He groaned, “This is gonna suck.” Scott put a hand on his shoulder as he sat up and Stiles shook his head, “I’m not going to have one of you around all of the time, I’ll have to get used to it.”

Scott nodded but helped Stiles up off the couch, steadying him when his head felt like it was floating off his shoulders for a second. Derek was watching them, keeping track of Stiles’ heartrate and seeing just how much he was favoring his right foot. Turns out, a lot and it gave in a little when he took his first step.

“We’ll help get it back to normal.” Derek said, “For now, just try to keep off of it so it can heal for a couple days. You need food. Come on.”

Scott helped him shuffle over to the table where everyone else was already starting to devour the heaps of spaghetti the three had managed to cook up, bread already almost gone and the corn diminishing quickly. But, once they sat down everyone gave Stiles a look, gauging to see how well he actually was.

He smirked a little bit and waved his hand, “I’m fine. I got eaten by metal teeth but it’s fine. No big deal. Ethan’s just going to hold it over me for the next nine years.”

They all breathed in a sigh of relief and went back to their normally scheduled ridiculous amount of food consumption.


	2. Is This a Harry Potter Book?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hmm, not the story I heard.” He said, “I think we should start slow. Something that will hurt, but not kill you. What organ do you think that is? I mean, how about the appendix? I’ve heard that’s not…” Stiles felt something inside of him explode in white hot pain and he tried to double over. But, a hand was holding him around his neck, another pressing into where the pain had originated and he saw Isaac and Boyd howl, “…pleasant.”

By the time they had their next meeting, there were two new members in the pack. Kira and Malia. A Kitsune and a werecoyote respectively. Stiles was starting to feel a little like the whole ‘human’s helped strengthen a pack’ thing was only for his benefit. At his last count there was nine werewolves, one werecoyote, one banshee, one kanima, one Kitsune, a hunter (he knew technically that Allison was human but she was just so supernaturally good at what she did he considered her in a whole other tier), and then him and Danny as the humans. Although, he was pretty sure Danny was going to ask for the bite sometime soon.

Their most recent threat was some unknown abstract being who they never saw in material form. They got his scent, and obviously his trail of victims who’d all had their memory swiped but seemed to remember, as if it were a dream, something cold coming almost through them and then nothing.

The worst part was that they couldn’t figure out what he’d done to the victims. Not only did they have to be incredibly careful about what they asked as to not hint at the entire supernatural world but there was also nothing physical left on the victims. Until the fifth one who was found in an alley four miles away from where they were last seen, they were found alive but spent three days unconscious and woke up with bigger gaps in their memory than any of the others. Number six was unconscious for a week and their heart stopped three times before they woke up with no recollection of their life before. Most recent was number seven who didn’t make it at all. Officially, he died of a heart attack. Unofficially, he seemed to have had the life drained out of him, failing organ by failing organ.

So, they were on high alert with everyone pairing up. The couples were obvious: Ethan and Danny, Kira and Scott, Aiden and Lydia, Boyd and Erica. The future couple (or who Stiles suspected were going to hook up or already were hooking up): Jackson and Malia. And then they paired off from there which left Stiles with Isaac, Derek with Peter, and Cora with Allison. Stiles was still debating whether Cora and Isaac had something weird going on between them but he wasn’t going to jinx it.

The plan was working. They had a group patrolling every night, just in case and there hadn’t been any recent victims. Some of the pack thought that was wonderful. Lydia and Stiles had a different opinion that they called a meeting to talk about.

“We think that he might have somehow been gathering strength from each victim. The first ones were practice, or because he needed to do whatever he did to them in order to get his strength up for the next one. His next victims got continually worse and farther apart which means he may be sated longer the worse he does.” Lydia explained.

“Now, he’s going to go after someone important or someone that takes more energy. We think that he’s just planning right now, preserving his strength till he finds the one and gets a chance to go after them. Odds are, he doesn’t want just some random citizen, he’s waiting for one of us or some other high profile victim.” Stiles continued.

“Have we found out at all who it is or what they want?” Danny asked.

“We think that he’s just someone’s pawn. From what I’ve found he’s sort of like a Dementor, you know, from Harry Potter. He doesn’t really care about what he’s doing but he likes it and someone set him loose here in town, probably with an ultimate goal or target.” Stiles said.

"Are we in some Harry Potter alternate universe?" Cora joked. "Will it suck out our souls and guard the gates to Azkaban?"

"Hilarious, Cora." Derek said, rolling his eyes as he stood up and cleared his throat, “So, keep together, always have someone with you. If one of us is the target we need to figure out who and, worst case scenario, figure out how to counteract the effects of whatever it is he does.”

“How do we catch it? We’ve never actually seen it.” Ethan said, “If we come across it, are we just supposed to guess?”

“Stiles? Lydia? Did you come across anything?” Derek asked.

“I doubt it’ll be susceptible to claws or arrows.” Lydia said, “We’ll get something together for everyone to carry around, a mix of chemicals and compounds that seem to do harm to a variety of our enemies and hopefully something in it will at least incapacitate them.”

“That’s all for tonight, business wise.” Derek said, “As usual, call if there’s problems.”

“But no one’s leaving!” Erica said, leaping up. “It’s bonding night! We’ve got about ten pizzas on the way, Derek’s freezer is packed with ice cream, and Cora rented horror movies. So, bathroom break now and then movie marathon!”

There was a collective groan but everyone did as they were told, pizzas showing up just as they were going to sit back down. Boyd brought out 12-packs of pop and set them on the coffee table which was shoved all the way up against the media unit along with the mile high stack of pizzas. 

The two L shaped couches in the room were completely taken up. One arm of the first taken up by a sprawling Allison, Scott, and Kira lying half on top of him, the other arm occupied by Malia, Jackson, Danny, and Ethan all somehow intertwined while still managing not to spill their food and drink all over. The other couch was Isaac, Cora, and Stiles on one arm with Derek, Boyd, and Erica on the other. Aiden and Lydia had taken the throne of the room, the armchair, to themselves. Peter had taken it upon himself to vacate the common room to ‘read something educational’. 

By two in the morning everyone was out. At one point Stiles thinks that he may have seen Kira rolling off the couch in order to turn off the DVD so it didn’t play the main menu theme over and over but he wasn’t sure.

The next day turned out to be perfect weather for their guy, dreary and rainy and dark, it seemed like the perfect time for him to strike.

And, they were right.

They all took off searching around noon, Lydia’s concoction in a vial in each of their pockets. The twins, Danny, and Lydia were searching the perimeter of the town. The Hales and Allison were in the preserve. Scott, Kira, Malia, and Jackson were rechecking any place there had been victims before. Boyd, Erica, Stiles, and Isaac were following the scents around the town.

Stiles’ group was in an alley, where one of the victims had been found, and were just about to walk out when all three werewolves perked up a little bit. “I think it’s close.” Isaac said.

Boyd and Erica nodded in agreement and Stiles got his hand in his pocket around the vial. Then, they were all knocked off their feet, onto their backs on the hard brick ground. Stiles felt cold, like it was seeping into his bones and then he was up against the wall. 

In front of him was some translucent figure, never taking a defined shape. It was a greenish/white with black holes for eyes. Stiles couldn’t move anything except his eyes and he could see Isaac, Erica, and Boyd getting up behind the thing. 

Then it was talking, a thready voice pitched right between what one would classify as a boy’s or a girl’s tone. “And here we are. The Hale/McCall pack. This is interesting.” 

Stiles saw Isaac get up and move toward him, only to be stopped by what Stiles realized was a ring of mountain ash around him. Isaac looked at him panicked as Erica moved out of the alley to get on her phone and Boyd grabbed a hold of Isaac, to keep him from hurting himself by running against the barrier over and over again.

“Now, I don’t feel the need to swipe your memory or make you pass out before I do this, it seems unnecessary considering you always know about me and what I do. But, I’ll let you all know. I’m here in retaliation for a little pack that lost a little someone at your hands. Do you remember? Her name was Jorden, a beta that you guys killed.”

“She was omega.” Stiles hissed out, “She killed three innocent people and tried to kill us.”

“Hmm, not the story I heard.” He said, “I think we should start slow. Something that will hurt, but not kill you. What organ do you think that is? I mean, how about the appendix? I’ve heard that’s not…” Stiles felt something inside of him explode in white hot pain and he tried to double over. But, a hand was holding him around his neck, another pressing into where the pain had originated and he saw Isaac and Boyd howl, “…pleasant.”

Jackson and Malia showed up then, not helpful considering they couldn’t get through the barrier either and they were just there watching Stiles suffer as well. The thing was cackling in front of him, staring at Stiles and looking as if he was contemplating something. He kept his eyes trained on the pack who had murder in their eyes and claws digging into their own hands as they stood frustrated at their lack of ability to do anything. Stiles wanted to reassure them, to tell them he was fine but then his face was grabbed by that same ice cold air that was holding him up and forcing him to look back into the black sockets that were his eyes.

“What’s next? A kidney? You only really need one…” And Stiles swore he should’ve passed out but there must’ve been something that he was doing to keep Stiles conscious because the pain was rocketing through his body worse than anything he’d felt before, making his legs give out and eye’s flutter shut as he tried to think of anything except what was going on.

Then the rest of the pack was there and the barrier was broken. Lydia and Allison were throwing their vials on the thing, Isaac and Scott going to Stiles and helping him down onto the ground. “Stiles, tell us what he did. Come on, stay awake.” Scott was pulling as much pain as he could while they talked but after just seconds it was too much.

“Kidney and appendix.” Isaac said, “He shut them down or ruptured them or something. We have to get him to the hospital. Call your mom Scott, I’ll help Stiles.”

Scott pulled himself away, backing off as Cora, Jackson, and Derek squatted down with Isaac. “Pull his pain, it’ll help his body recuperate, or at least keep working until we get him to the hospital. Peter, go get the car pulled to the front of the alley.”

“Stay awake Stiles.” Cora said, “Shit, this is too much Derek. He’s dying.”

“He’s not dying!” Derek growled, “Aiden, Malia, help out!”

Allison and Lydia were dealing with what seemed to be a pile of slime soaked fabric where the thing had been and Kira snapped at them, “Don’t touch it, we don’t know what harm it could do even dead. Allison, you should call your dad and tell him what happened.”

“Car’s here.” Danny said, “Go.”

On a count of three Derek was hefting a barely there Stiles up with the others still crowded around trying to keep him as awake as possible. “Scott, what’d your mom say?” Derek asked, Scott off the phone and following behind.

“That the other victims’ other organs started shutting down once one went. We have to keep him as awake and conscious as possible to hopefully slow down the destruction. And hurry. We have to hurry.” Scott said, eyebrows creased in worry as Derek helped lay Stiles across the laps of Jackson, Isaac, and Cora in the backseat. Scott squeezed in on the floor of the back seat to stay close to Stiles’ head, Derek going to the front seat and all of them trying to keep their hands on him as Peter squealed off towards the hospital.

The rest of the pack was left to follow in a different car. “Danny and I will stay here, wait for my dad to see what this thing is exactly and make sure it’s the only one and it’s really dead. We’ll meet you at the hospital when we’re done.” Allison said.

Aiden, Ethan, Lydia, Boyd, Erica, Kira, Lydia, and Malia got to their cars and headed off to the hospital, praying that whatever the thing did to Stiles was slow working. Hoping that it wouldn’t be too hard for the doctors to save him.

“He’s hardly awake…” Jackson said, “How far are we?”

“Almost there.” “Peter assured.

Stiles could there them almost as if it were through some sort of tunnel. He could tell that Scott was holding his hand too tight, pulling too much pain than what could be good for him. Derek’s hand was on his shoulder, his thumb rubbing back and forth, as comforting as Derek could be. Jackson was at his head, holding it far enough up that his neck wouldn’t be strained and keeping one hand held around his neck. Stiles wasn’t sure if he was holding fingers over his pulse or not but he was positive that his hand was shaking. Cora was in the middle, keeping her hand resting lightly on his stomach and keeping her eyes straight ahead, trying to will the car to go even faster than it already was. Isaac’s grip was tight around his ankle, the other hand holding around his waist to make sure any twists or turns didn’t throw him forward. 

And Stiles felt like he was going numb. And he knew that wasn’t a good thing.

The pack took over a private hospital waiting room; chewing nails, pacing, sitting stoically, pulling at hair, or staring at a blank wall. Derek surveyed the room. The chairs were all placed with their back to the walls, all the way around and Scott sat in the one closest to the door. Kira was next to him, constantly glancing at him and then down at the floor unsure of how to comfort him. Filling the other chairs against that wall were Ethan and Danny, holding hands but otherwise completely disengaged, both staring at different places with nothing registering in their heads. The wall adjacent to that had Cora with her hand on Isaac’s neck next to her. Telling him over and over it wasn’t his fault, he couldn’t have done anything. Isaac just sat with his knee bouncing up and down, head in his hands as his elbows rested on the armrests. Aiden, Lydia, and Allison were next. Allison keeping her jaw clenched tight and hands clasped even tighter while the other two were practically wrapped up in each other. The third wall was just Boyd and Erica, taking the chairs without armrests and lying across them, heads at opposite ends and feet twined together as they kept their eyes closed. Next to Derek was Jackson who seemed kept picking at his nails until they bled and then healed over again. Derek gave him a pat on the back.

“He’ll be fine.” Derek said.

Jackson’s head flipped up to look at him and he narrowed his eyes, trying to see if Derek was lying but not sensing it he relaxed a little bit, “I hope.”

Malia sat on the other side of Jackson, looking up at the TV screen that was playing some national news station. Lastly, Peter was standing up against the wall, listening for hints around the hospital for the rest of them who were too zoned out to try.

Almost four hours later Melissa McCall walked in and all the heads snapped towards her in the most unison thing the pack had ever done. She held up her hand before everyone could explode in questions, “He’s stable. They took out his appendix, removed the shutdown kidney, and repaired the tear that was starting in his stomach lining. His other kidney was weak but they managed to save it, get it back to working order although they’ll have to keep a close eye on that for a while. He might end up needing a transplant. He lost a lot of blood in surgery and his body was exhausted but he pulled through. He’s in the ICU now and will be until they figure out if his kidney will hold.”

They all digested the information and then Scott was speaking up, “If... if his kidney fails then how long will he have to wait for one?”

“I don’t know, honey.” Melissa admitted. 

“One of us can donate.” Derek said, surprising himself by speaking up.

“What?” 

“I mean, we’ll be fine with only one. We heal. That’s the point. One of us is bound to match his blood type. How much danger is he in with only one after all this anyway?”

“He’ll have to be careful the rest of his life. Which, now that I say it out loud, sounds impossible.” Melissa admitted. “We can check all your blood types. But I don’t know how you expect us to get to your kidney when you’re constantly healing.”

“Deaton can help. He can stall the healing process long enough to get the kidney out.” Peter said, pulling away from the wall. “You’ll have to figure out how to get the kidney in from a vet’s clinic though.”

“Let the Sheriff and I figure that out, he’s already here and waiting outside Stiles’ room but we can think of something.” Melissa assured. “Let’s figure out your blood types.”

An hour later, they found out that the compatible donors were Cora, Isaac, and the twins.

“Now how do we figure out who does it?” Cora asked, looking between the other three.

Deaton came walking in at just that moment, of course, and looked between the three. “We can figure out who reacts best with the anesthesia and fluid that’ll slow the healing. It’s not an exact calculation for each werewolf, it depends on a lot of things so we can see who’ll handle it the best and then take it from there.”

“Please don’t tell me one of us is getting our kidney out at the vet’s clinic…” Ethan said.

“It’s for Stiles.” Scott said, speaking quietly from where he’d sat back down, “Just remember that. He’s saved all of us too.”

The four looked at him sympathetically and nodded. “Alright Deaton, let’s go. Who’s going to come with us and who’s staying here?” Cora asked.

“I’ll come, and Lydia to help Deaton. Peter can come along too because he can’t stand to stay in one place too long anyway.” Derek said. “The rest of you should get something to eat, change clothes. Melissa can call if anything changes with Stiles.”

“I’m staying.” Scott said immediately. Derek practically growled but Scott stayed firm and stood up, “He is my best friend. And the Sheriff needs someone to help him along.”

“Fine, Scott can stay. The rest of you, what I say still stands.” Derek said, pointedly looking at the rest of the pack, “You’re no help to anyone sick.”

A few grumbles but then the only one left was Scott with his mom, “Can I see him?”

“You can go wait by The Sheriff, they should be letting you in soon. Are you okay?” She put her hands on either of his shoulders and looked him in the eye, “You need to take some deep breaths. It’ll be okay.”

Scott nodded and the two walked through the maze of the hospital and up to where The Sheriff was waiting outside sitting on a bench. He glanced up when he saw them coming and gave Scott what was probably supposed to be a reassuring smile. “I’ll check on when you can go in.” Melissa said, giving The Sheriff a squeeze on the shoulder before walking off to check with a doctor.

“What happened, Scott?” 

“I wasn’t there. He was with Isaac, Erica, and Boyd. Apparently the thing just shuts down your organs. He was awake when I got there and we kept him awake till we got him to the hospital but the pain was horrible. Like, five of us holding onto him to pain drain him at a time.” Scott said, “But, they’re figuring it out, seeing who can donate a kidney. I’m sure Melissa already told you.”

“Yeah, Parrish is helping out.”

“You can go in.” Melissa said, walking back. “Just, let him rest.”

Scott took one side of the bed, pulling up a chair, while The Sheriff took the other side of the bed and they both looked over Stiles between them. He was hooked up to about ten different machines and he was paler than the sheets he was lying on but at least he was alive.

Fifteen minutes later Derek texted Scott telling him it was going to be Isaac who would donate and they had a plan for how to get the organ into the hospital. Within minutes Scott was telling Melissa who was getting Stiles prepped for the next surgery, assuring the two guys in the room that it was going to be okay. They were going to do everything they could.

Isaac was terrified. He knew what he was doing was right. And he knew he wanted to do it. But that didn’t help the fact that he was at a veterinary clinic with Deaton and Lydia in scrubs and Cora, Peter, Ethan, and Derek waiting in the room next door to make sure he didn’t somehow wolf out and try and kill them. 

“Here we go. It won’t hurt Isaac, just stay calm and don’t look at what we’re doing. I’d put you to sleep but that’d just be an unnecessary risk.”

“Exactly what qualifications do you have for this, Deaton?”

“High school anatomy class.” He joked. Then he looked at Isaac and rolled his eyes, “I’m a trained medical professional. I know what I’m doing. Relax. You’re saving your friends life.”

The next day, after all the surgeries were done and Stiles seemed to be recovering at an unprecedented rate, they all flooded into his room. Melissa tried to stop them, as did The Sheriff, but apparently they didn’t care all that much because they stayed out of the room and talked to Peter, guarding the door so pushy nurses and doctors wouldn’t intrude on them.

“Dude, I’m literally forever inside of you.” Isaac said from his spot closest to Stiles head on one side of the bed, “How awesome is that?”

“Pretty awesome bro. Thanks. For doing that. I know it was probably freaky as shit.”

“You have no idea. But it was no problem, I owed you. It was partially my fault anyway.” At that half the pack erupted into noises of disagreement and Erica, who was closest to him, smacked him on the back of the head.

“It wasn’t your fault. Don’t be stupid.” Stiles said. “He knew what he was doing.”

“Good thing we did too.” Allison smirked.

“Alright, we should let him rest.” Kira said, “Otherwise Melissa will have a hernia trying to keep snoopy staff out of here. And he’s falling asleep as we speak.”

“Am not.” Stiles protested.

“Sure, whatever you say.” Jackson said, rolling his eyes, “We’ll see you tomorrow.”

At that, they filed out and The Sheriff came in, finally getting time alone with his son since the whole thing had gone down. “How’re you doing?”

“I’ll be okay.”

“I know. Doesn’t mean you have to be now.”

“I’m a little freaked out, in a bit of pain, and sick of being in the hospital. But, yeah, I’m okay.”


	3. Criminal Minds is a Hunter's Handbook

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Scott pushed me onto the ground after I saved his life.” Stiles whined; face gaining some color thanks to the black lines climbing up Erica’s arm. "I was at least expecting a thank you, a hearty handshake if he was feeling really generous."

“Stiles, RUN!”

Stiles glanced at Scott, and then back at the rogue hunter raising his gun in front of them. He wasn’t stupid, but he wasn’t going to let his best friend get shot either. So, just before the shot rang out, he was plowing into Scott’s side and knocking him to the ground.

“Fuck, Stiles! Why would you do that?” Scott growled, rolling Stiles off of him and then giving him a quick glance before the hunter was running up to them. Scott pounced, pinning the hunter to the ground and pulling the rope he had in his back pocket around the hunter’s wrists. “Allison! Got one!”

Allison and her dad came running toward them, taking a look at the hunter on the ground and Chris giving him a nudge with his boot, “Nice to see you again, Miles.”

The two pulled him off to where they had the other three handcuffed in their car, Allison calling back to Stiles and Scott, “That’s all of them. Derek wants the pack to meet up at the house, see you in a while.”

That’s when Scott finally went back to where Stiles had propped himself up against a tree. “Alright bro, let’s head out.”

Stiles went to stand and Scott let out a noise that Stiles had heard hundreds of times before, the sound that he made anytime someone around him was hurt. “What happened?”

Stiles looked down at his side, the blood already staining his shirt, “Bullet must’ve skimmed me.”

“Damn it!” Scott was at his side, holding him partway up and trying to stop some of the bleeding, “How bad is it?”

“It’s fine, the bullet isn’t in there. Just need to stop the bleeding. Let’s get back to the house.” Stiles said, gritting his teeth and starting to move forward.

“Cora and Malia are close behind us.” Scott said, “They’ll catch up and can help. Are you sure you’re okay to walk?”

“You’re not carrying me.” Stiles said. “Let’s go.”

Cora and Malia made it to them about a minute later and Cora immediately went to his other side, looping her arm around his waist and giving him a little smile, “Looks like you got yourself in a little predicament. How’d that happen?”

“I didn’t want Scott to get shot. So I pushed him. Guess I wasn’t quick enough.” Stiles explained. “Can we hurry though, I’m not feeling all that well.”

Malia ran ahead, telling the rest of the pack what had happened as the other’s made their way slowly and painstakingly through the preserve.

By the time they made it to the house Derek was, once again, standing on the front porch glaring at the exact location they emerged into the clearing. Striding out to meet them halfway across and stopping them, he pulled up Stiles’ shirt despite his protests. 

“It’ll be okay, Lydia’s got the stitching supplies ready.” They started walking again and within seconds of Stiles walking through the door he was being put down on the same couch as the time before with Lydia giving him a tight smile and Erica plopping down by his head.

“Alright, let’s get started. Isaac, get me some warm water and a washcloth, there’s some dirt in here. How’d you manage that Stiles?” Lydia was already talking at a mile a minute and setting her hand on Stiles’ side, right above where the wound was.

“Scott pushed me onto the ground after I saved his life.” Stiles whined; face gaining some color thanks to the black lines climbing up Erica’s arm. "I was at least expecting a thank you, a hearty handshake if he was feeling really generous."

“I didn’t know you were shot, first off. Second, you didn’t have to shove me out of the way. Third, I didn’t push you, I had to keep the hunter from shooting us again.” Scott explained as he sat down at Stiles’ feet. 

Isaac walked out with the bowl of water and sat it next to Lydia who cleaned off Stiles’ side before threating her needle and taking a deep breath, “Alright, I’ll be as quick as I can. You set Stiles?”

“Yupp, do you worst.”

And, another day in pack life was complete with Derek taking Lydia’s place once the stitching was done and gesturing the rest of them away. He patched up Stiles’ side and helped him upright, “You did well, feeling alright?”

“Thanks for your overwhelming support for your absolute favorite pack mate. I’m fine. I’m a little queasy and it still hurts like a bitch but I’m alright.”

Derek’s hand went back to his side and after a few seconds, the edge was off and Stiles gave him a nod of thanks. “I heard Jackson ordering Chinese.”

“Good, did he get me extra orange chicken?”

“Yes Stiles! Ass.” Jackson yelled from the dining room. “Are we allowed back in there if you guys are done having your alpha/hurt pack member moment.”

“Dick.” Stiles muttered.

“Yes.” Derek said at a more audible volume.

Half the pack poured into the room and Aiden was immediately turning the TV on and flipping through channels until Danny was tackling him for the remote and Allison was finding her way to Stiles’ side. “How’re you doing?”

“I’m fine. Did your dad figure out what was going on with them?”

“Just extremists apparently. They had a bad run in with an Omega somewhere north and went a little rampant. Dad ripped him a new one once he figured out you’d gotten shot. He’s going to have an objective party deal with them otherwise they could just come back for us.” Allison explained.

Stiles nodded and noticed that everyone seemed to be settling down around him, focused on the TV which Danny must’ve gotten control of. They were watching an episode of Criminal Minds and Stiles had just focused when the poor victim had her shoulder’s dislocated by some sort of wooden contraption hooked behind her. 

“I don’t know how these sort of torture methods don’t end up in the hunters’ hands more often.” Cora said from where she was leaning against Isaac, “It seems like a very ripe crop of ideas from what I can tell.”

“Exactly what I was thinking.” Erica agreed.

"A hunter's handbook." Malia said, "And they can get all of the episodes on Netflix."

And just like that, it was another night with the pack. Every so often, if Stiles seemed to flinch or look in too much discomfort, one of the wolves around him would pull some pain without even glancing at him. He’d give their hand a squeeze in thanks and then they’d have a little half smile.


	4. Alpha Over Emergency

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Why’d you call Derek? Instead of 911 or something?”
> 
> Stiles fiddled his fingers together, looking down at his hands as he shrugged a little bit, “I don’t know really. I was freaked out cause I couldn’t remember how I’d gone off the road. I just figured he’d know what to do.”
> 
> “I think that made him happy. In a weird way. He obviously wasn’t thrilled you were in a car accident but it must’ve felt like you finally really trusted him when you called. I know you two have this mutual life saving bond thing but that’s the first time you’ve ever called him first, instead of me or Lydia; you know? It finally seemed like you were seeing him as an Alpha.”

“Hey, Derek. My favorite alpha, my one true werewolf compatriot…”

“What do you want Stiles?”

“I’m in a bit of a situation.”

“What kind of situation exactly?” Stiles could hear Derek’s anger through the phone and almost chickened out asking for help until he realized he had literally no other option.

“I’m stuck in my jeep, a bit outside of town. I’m crashed against a tree. I could be wrong but I don’t think it’s good that I’m not feeling any pain because my leg looks a little screwed up.”

“Damn it Stiles! Where’s the pack? At least Scott?”

“Everyone’s in school!” Stiles exclaimed, “One other thing, I’m not sure where I am.”

“What.”

“I think I lost some memory, in the crash you know. And, well…”

“For God’s sake. I’ll call Peter and we’ll head out looking for you. School’s almost out, by the way, so I’ll get the rest of the pack on it too. Can you at least tell me what you see? Or if you’re even in Beacon Hills still?”

“I don’t know Derek! Christ! Just help me out please! I’m freaked out!”

“Stiles, breathe. It’ll be okay. We’ll find you. I’ll stay on the phone with you. Okay?” Derek was using his alpha voice, his one that said that he wasn’t going to let anything happen and although Stiles knew that it didn’t actually help the situation but he did feel a little weight lift off his shoulders. “You’re on speakerphone, I’m texting the pack.”

“Have Danny figure out what I was searching. Maybe I was doing something with that…”

“Got it. How’s your leg?”

“I think it’s both legs, actually. Now that I look, they’re not in the best of shape. Also, it’s getting a little chilly wherever I am.” Stiles informed him.

“Okay, everyone’s out of school and looking. Danny’s on his way to your house with Lydia to get into your computer. I’m getting into my car now.”

They stayed on the line with each other for the next half hour or so, Stiles feeling like it was getting a little hopeless because apparently he had great security and history deleting skills on his computer that were difficult for Danny to get around. But, then he figured out that Stiles was searching for a shop about an hour away from Beacon Hills, and Derek was flying down roads to get to him.

“I’m closest anyway, I’ll tell the rest of them to wait back at the house. How’re you feeling?”

“Still nothing, and I’m getting more and more worried about that.” 

“It’ll be fine.”

Stiles didn’t know how much longer it was, but then Derek was screeching up behind him and jumping out of his car over to Stiles’ door. He saw the jeep wedged between two trees which must’ve been just too small for him to fit through after his car must’ve flipped off the road. Derek really had no idea how it would’ve happened but Stiles had the tendency to do that.

“How’re you feeling?” Derek asked through the window, looking around to try and figure out just what was what around him.

“Freezing, and a bit scared that I’ll never walk again.”

“You’ll walk again, don’t be stupid. Hold on one sec.” Then Derek was running back to his car and grabbing one of the pack’s sweatshirts from the backseat and throwing it in the window to Stiles, “Put this on, I’d rather you didn’t go into shock the second you get out of here.”

“Isn’t this Scott’s?”

“I don’t know Stiles, does it really matter?” Derek asked, rolling his eyes because of course that is what Stiles would focus on, the owner of the damn sweatshirt.

“I mean, I guess not.” Stiles shrugged, pulling the sweatshirt around him and immediately feeling slightly better. He wasn’t sure if that was because Derek was actually there and something was going to be done or because he was finally not shaking in cold anymore.

“Okay, let’s get you out.”

“How do you plan on doing that?” Then he was pulling the door off and Stiles raised an eyebrow at him, “Like that, I guess. Now what? I don’t know if it’s a good idea to take all of the pressure off my legs at once…”

Derek nodded as he looked down at Stiles’ legs, looking to see if they were bleeding or just severely broken. Turns out the latter. “Okay, you won’t lose any blood but it’ll hurt. Probably quite a bit. It’s quicker for me to bring you to the hospital than to wait for them to come here at this point. Which I don’t know why you didn’t call the hospital first off.”

“I don’t know.” Stiles admitted, “Just thought to call you.”

Derek softened a little at that and said, “Alright, let’s just get you out. I’m going to try and unjam the seat so it’ll scoot back and I can get you out. Then I’ll tell Boyd and Isaac to come get your jeep back to the house. Ready?”

“Ready.” Stiles braced his arms on either side of the seat as Derek did whatever he could to move him. All of a sudden, the seat gave way and Stiles felt all of the blood previously trapped flow through him again and he promptly puked onto the ground, just barely missing Derek. 

Then, he was slumping out of his seat and Derek scooped him out of the jeep. “Okay, try and stay awake, I know it hurts. Just stay awake. Okay?”

“Don’t think I can manage that…” Stiles slurred out, doing his best to get a hold of Derek’s jacket so he at least felt like he had a grip on something.

“What did I tell you about going into shock? Stay awake.” 

Stiles head flopped off of Derek’s shoulder, who cursed and buckled him into the passenger seat of the Camaro. He felt like it wasn’t worth it to pull the pain if Stiles was passed out anyway so he focused on driving and went about forty over the speed limit for the next twenty minutes back into Beacon Hills.

Once Stiles was, once again, in the hospital, he was whisked away and Derek was left to tell Mr. Stilinski what exactly had happened and why Stiles called him instead of 911. Then, he proceeded to spend the next hour and a half sitting with Mr. Stilinski in the waiting room as they figured out how to fix Stiles’ legs which had both been practically crushed by the crash.

“How’s his car?”

“It’s in bad shape. Boyd and Isaac got it back to the house. I think Scott will be here in a little bit to wait with you and then I’ll head back and we’ll try and fix it up. Malia is surprisingly good at fixing up cars considering she lived in the forest for years.”

“Thank you. For going there, everything.”

“He’s pack.” Derek explained, “It’s what we do.”

Then Melissa came out, as Scott walked in and told them, “He’ll be okay. His legs are completely mangled and they’re going to hurt for a while but after a lot of healing time and physical therapy, it’ll be okay. We haven’t casted them up yet because the swelling is still too substantial but once that goes down he’ll have casts over his knees on both legs. I can imagine he won’t be happy about that so good luck dealing with him for the next six or so weeks.”

“He’ll be in a wheelchair?” Scott asked.

“Yes, with his legs out in front of him. Do not laugh at him! That will not help out the situation!” Melissa said, looking to both Derek and Scott, “And then inform the pack of that same rule!”

“What about his head? He said he couldn’t remember the crash, or before it.” Derek asked.

“Slight concussion, he’ll be fine. It was probably a mix of hitting his head, stress, and the trauma of the crash that caused that. Sheriff, you can go in and see him. I’m assuming Scott’s going to go in with you?”

Scott nodded and gave Derek a pat on the back, “I’ll text you when he’s up, and keep you updated. Thanks for getting him.” Derek nodded and headed out the door as the other two followed Melissa. 

Once Scott was alone with Stiles, his dad going to get something to eat, he grabbed a hold of his hand just to see how much pain he was in. Luckily, it seemed like they had him on enough drugs to keep it in control but he still managed to pull a little bit before Stiles was shifting awake and using his free hand to push Scott away. 

“It’s okay Scott, I’m fine.” He assured, “What’d your mom say? My legs going to work again?”

“Of course they are.” Scott said, “They’re pretty screwed up though. Apparently you’ll be in a wheelchair for a bit until they’re healed and then you’ll be in very intense physical therapy. Hopefully we’ll be able to get you out of the hospital’s physical therapy and you can just work with the pack, it’ll be a little easier for us and we can handle pain management.”

“You guys don’t always have to take my pain. I can handle it.”

“But you shouldn’t have to. That’s part of us being a pack and you know that. You’d want to take our pain if we were in it too. Also, I feel like it’s better than the off chance of you getting addicted to pain killers or something.” Scott knew that if Stiles were ever to overuse pain killers the pack would notice, they would be able to smell it on him, but he also knew that prescription drugs were dangerously addictive and he wasn’t really willing to leave anything up to fate when their luck seemed to run out at the most unfortunate of times.

Stiles gave him a smile and patted his head, “You’re a good guy. Thanks. Is Derek pissed at me?”

“Why would he be pissed?”

“Because I didn’t tell anyone where I was going, and then couldn’t tell him where I was…” Stiles said, “I know it wasn’t the smartest but…”

“Calm down Stiles, it’s fine. He’s probably going to lecture you a bit but that’s just what he does. Where were you going?”

“Well, after the whole organ crushing incident a while back I’ve been searching for more concoctions that can help us in general, you know, like things we can have on hand that work for a lot of different defenses just in case. I didn’t want anyone to think I was going crazy and having flashbacks or something to then.”

“No one would blame you if you were, that freaked everyone out. And it makes sense that you’d do that, just maybe bring someone along next time, you never know what those stores are like and who’s in charge. Could be someone that hates us.” Scott reminded him, “We aren’t exactly enemy free here.”

“I know, you’re right. Since when were you so wise Scotty?” 

“The sarcasm is not appreciated bro.” They sat in a comfortable quiet for a little bit before Scott cleared his throat and asked, “Why’d you call Derek? Instead of 911 or something?”

Stiles fiddled his fingers together, looking down at his hands as he shrugged a little bit, “I don’t know really. I was freaked out cause I couldn’t remember how I’d gone off the road. I just figured he’d know what to do.”

“I think that made him happy. In a weird way. He obviously wasn’t thrilled you were in a car accident but it must’ve felt like you finally really trusted him when you called. I know you two have this mutual life saving bond thing but that’s the first time you’ve ever called him first, instead of me or Lydia; you know? It finally seemed like you were seeing him as an Alpha.”

“I’ve always seen him as an Alpha, you know that. I just, I don’t know…”

Scott smirked and gave Stiles’ arm a pat, “It’s okay, you don’t have to explain it. I’ve got to go though, tell the pack what happened and all that. You’ll come over to the pack house once you get out though, right?”

“Yeah, if I ever get out.”

“Don’t be so dramatic. My mom says you’ll be here four days max. I’ll come back though, maybe help your dad when you’re checked out cause it’s going to take some acrobats to get you into a car with your legs casted all the way up.”

“Shit, I forgot about that. I’m going to need to wear really loose sweatpants for the next month and a half. Great, it’s not like my style was excellent anyway.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure something out. See you later bro. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Of course.”

Three days later Stiles was at the pack house looking about as happy as a kicked puppy. His legs were up in blue casts on his wheelchair’s footrests and his scowl was firmly set on anyone who even looked like they might laugh.

“Aw, Stiles…” Kira came over with a sympathetic pout, giving him as good of a hug as she could, “Want to sit on the couch?”

“Uhm, sure.”

Then, Jackson and Scott were there lifting him over to the couch and moving his wheelchair out of the way. Stiles gave Scott a fist bump in thanks while pointedly ignoring Jackson’s little smirk as he moved away. 

Pack night commenced and all was well.


	5. Not a Pack, But a Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few minutes later, someone stalked in. Middle aged and compensating for something with his walk, he went to stand right in front of Stiles with his arms across his chest. He looked Stiles up and down and then smirked a little bit, “Oh boy, is this going to be fun.”
> 
> “Was that a question? Because I think you know my answer.”

Stiles wished that Cora hadn’t said anything about the hunters mixing with Criminal Minds. He knows it’s not her fault, and he knows that he has bigger things to worry about but right now, he was really feeling like she’d jinxed them. 

He found himself sitting on a wooden chair, arms strapped to the armrests with belts and legs in a similar predicament attached to their respective legs on the chair. His mind had a throwback to when they were on one of the earlier seasons of the show, he was pretty sure it was a finale episode, but Reid had been kidnapped by someone with multiple personalities, and he had also been strapped to a chair in a shed in the middle of nowhere.

Granted, this did seem like somewhat typical kidnapping techniques. Secluded and rendered immobile he had a feeling that he wasn’t going to get out of this quite as easy as his favorite character had managed to on the show. 

Another common ground he shared with that episode, there was a video camera facing him. That’s what worried him the most. He didn’t want his dad to see this, he didn’t want anyone to but especially the person who’d tried so hard to protect him from all of this his whole life. It would kill him to realize that he couldn’t save Stiles from this.

He tried to figure out if there was any way for him to get out, any advantage that he could gain but looking around the room he realized that they must’ve known what they were doing. First things first, the chair was bolted to the ground. That means that there was no chance of him being able to break it by tipping it over. Second, the belts weren’t at all worn. He feels a little special, they must’ve gotten new ones just for him. They were also buckled underneath the arms of the chair, so he couldn’t get to them with his mouth to try and maneuver them undone. Third, there was no way for him to protect himself if (when) they started to hit him which would mean even if he could somehow get out of the chair after a while, he probably wouldn’t be in the state to do so.

A few minutes later, someone stalked in. Middle aged and compensating for something with his walk, he went to stand right in front of Stiles with his arms across his chest. He looked Stiles up and down and then smirked a little bit, “Oh boy, is this going to be fun.”

“Was that a question? Because I think you know my answer.”

The smirk turned into a scowl and he glared at Stiles, “I can’t wait to ruin you to the point that you won’t ever want to run your mouth again.” He turned around then and went behind the camera, flipping it open and then hitting record. He didn’t say anything as he came back closer to Stiles, “Okay now kid, you know how this works, you know that we want your pack’s information and you know that we’ll get it one way or another. So make it easy on yourself. Tell me one little thing first, how do those alpha twins work?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Wrong answer kid.” Then Stiles felt the first of what he assumed was going to be a long string of injuries that he’d have to catalog as they went along. The first hit wasn’t bad, he figured that it could’ve been a lot worse because all that resulted from it was a cracked rib. Possibly. Not that it was pleasant, but it was something that Stiles could handle.

“We’ll try a new question. Who controls the kanima?”

Stiles realized how outdated this guy’s information must be then. A lot of people could’ve assumed the twins were still alphas, it wasn’t something that anyone was completely used to yet but Jackson hadn’t been controlled since the whole situation with Matt which was years ago. Stiles didn’t answer the question, just glared up at the guy.

Then it was the clank of metal as the guy pulled some tool off of the wall and that’s what worried Stiles because that was never a good sign. He kneeled down, hands on Stiles’ knees as whatever tool he’d gotten was set on the floor out of his line of sight. 

“My job is to get you to talk and I get more rewards if I do it quickly, so we’re going to move this along. I’m going to ask you a question and you’re going to answer, if you don’t answer or I know you’re lying to me I’ll use this,” then he was lifting a rubber mallet from the floor, “to get you to scream because if you look into that little camera, you’ll see that it’s recording and being streamed straight to that little group of mongrels that you call yours.”

Then it was question after question and Stiles was pretty sure that he was biting a hole in his lip as he tried to keep from screaming because the rubber mallet was coming down hard on his hands, fingers, bare feet each time he refused to answer.

He couldn’t tell how much time had passed when he finally passed out but he remembered looking into the camera, begging for the pack to find him. He knew they would, he fully trusted them, but he just hoped it’d be before he lost use of his hands or the ability to walk.  
\---  
“What do we do? Track it Danny! Fuck!” Lydia was practically screeching as the rest of the pack huddled around Derek’s computer. He was sitting at the table with it, everyone else huddled around him as his claws were digging into the table, trying not to completely wolf out.

“I’m trying, Lydia.” Danny said through his teeth, frantically typing on his own computer as he sat across the table, “It’s not that easy!”

“It’s been four hours and he’s probably been there for one at the least. That’s a three hour time frame that they could’ve been traveling. That could be anywhere with the hunters connections.” Kira said, “Our best hope is tracking that signal.”

“I understand that!” Danny was practically yelling as his head snapped up to glare at them, “You could figure out a way to help instead of just telling me what to do!”

It went quiet for a few seconds before Danny was back to typing and Lydia was going over next to him, pulling her own computer out and giving his shoulder a squeeze before starting to work. Allison followed their lead, pulling out her phone and calling her dad to try and figure out if he knew anything or if anyone in their contacts did.

Scott was sitting white faced next to Derek, his own claws digging into his hands as Kira kept her hands on his shoulders, trying to get him to calm down. Isaac was on Derek’s other side staring at the screen where Stiles had been left alone again with crooked fingers and feet looking dented from where the mallet had come down.

“What’s the plan?” Ethan asked quietly, trying not to disturb the tense atmosphere in the room in fear it’d bring hell down on him.

Derek seemed to shake himself out of a funk then and stood up, knocking his chair down as he turned to look at the bulk of the pack. “Okay. Okay. Allison, head to your dad’s, I could hear that he might know something. Peter will go with. Boyd, Erica, and Cora I want you out searching for his scent around town and especially around his house. Go in and see if there are any hints as to what may have happened. Aiden and Ethan, go search for his car, I think they made him drive part way and then probably ditched it somewhere. Jackson, Malia, and Kira go check the preserve. Lydia and Danny stay on that signal and see if you can get anything at all. Scott, what’s your plan?”

Scott jolted up a little bit and looked up to Derek, “Well, what’re you going to do?”

“Call everyone I know to see if they know what this is about, Isaac will help me sort through what I find. You can stay with us or go help anyone else. You’ll probably feel better out doing something though so I’d recommend you do that. We’ll keep an eye on the screen too.”

“I’ll go tell his dad.” Derek could’ve hit himself for not thinking of that. Of course, the Sheriff should’ve been first on his list and Stiles was going to kill him if he ever found out that his dad had escaped Derek’s mind, “I’ll bring him here. I’m sure he’ll get some officers to help out, at least Parrish.”

“Good. Everyone, stay available through your phones.”  
\---  
In order to wake Stiles up he felt scorching hot water being poured over his head. He was almost thankful that until he realized that as the hot water cooled off of him he may be even colder than if they’d just dumped cold water on him to begin with. It was someone different this time and he saw them holding up what looked like a cattle prod.

Turned out it was. He tried to keep count, thinking that it might keep him awake a little longer or at least keep him from going absolutely crazy. He got shocked eighteen times before the electricity had gotten his heart so screwed up that he passed out again.  
\---  
Scott had gotten Mr. Stilinksi over to them after about twenty minutes and the Sheriff was in rage that it was happening, then he got a look at the computer screen and almost threw it across the room. “What the hell is going on?”

“We don’t know yet.” Lydia said, “We’re finding him though, we’re going to get him back. See if Parrish can find anything different in the crime rates around the town. But, you shouldn’t be staring at the screen, let us watch him.”

“I’m going to go back to work, I can do more from there anyway. But, keep me informed with everything. You guys better find him in one piece.”

Derek was staring at the screen again, his hand breaking the glass of water that Isaac had forced him to start drinking as soon as he saw Stiles passed out again. “Are we any closer Danny?”

“Yes. They’ve got a pretty complex system going to try and keep us out but I think they underestimated us. We know they’re about an hour east, but there’s still about a 25 mile radius that they could be in. We’ll keep narrowing it down but you guys should go.” Danny said, “I’ll send the GPS to all your phones.”

“Allison just texted me.” Lydia said, “Apparently it’s a large hunter dispute, they’re adamantly against humans being part of a pack and they think it’s an abomination that we have multiple supernatural creatures in one pack.”

“How many?” Isaac asked.

“Probably twenty.” Lydia was typing at an incredible speed as she recited whatever other information she had to them, “Get going. We’ll stay on the computers and keep an eye on Stiles.”

The groups all got the message and we’re all heading off toward the range that Danny had sent them. Derek still didn’t feel that it was safe though, he knew the pack could handle themselves. Twenty hunters wasn’t a huge advantage compared to them, especially if Chris ended up coming along.

They were in the narrowed down range of a 10 mile radius when Danny called Ethan, “You need to be careful, they know you’re coming. I don’t know how but I’m guessing that there’s a scout that’s been relaying information to them.”

“How’s Stiles?” Ethan asked, putting it on speakerphone as the rest crowded around.

“Uhm…”  
\---  
Stiles looked up at where three hunters stood in front of him and tried not to focus on the knife in one’s hand, the bat in another’s, and a syringe in the last. “Oh kid, you really should’ve talked sooner.”

Then there was a hand on his arm, searching for a vein as the third hunter shoved the needle into his arm and depressed the plunger. At first, he thought it must be slow working but then his body was tensing up and seizing and he had no idea how this was helping them. Something was shoved in his mouth, he figured a cloth or something, and less than a minute later he was dizzily still again.

“That’s going to help us out. You want to know how?” Stiles obviously stayed mute so he spoke up again, “It lowers your ability to lie, in short.”

Stiles swallowed hard as they circled around him, one out of his line of sight completely and another just in his peripheral vision while the third stood directly in front of him. “I don’t know why you’re protecting them, they’d turn on you in a second if they needed to.”

Classic technique, Stiles cataloged, they were trying to get him to feel alone. They wanted him to feel like the pack didn’t care at all. He wasn’t going to let that get to him, he knew they cared, they’d proven it to him hundreds of times.

“I mean, they’ve all taken a swipe at you. What makes you think that wasn’t the norm and the rest of their behavior is just them trying to hold back from ripping your throat out?” This was coming from the man behind Stiles.

“What place do you have in a pack of superior intellect, strength, and overall power?” This was the one to his left, that he could barely keep in his line of sight if he stayed focused on the one in front of him. She was dragging her bat back and forth on the floor, presumably to make sure Stiles didn’t forget she had it.

“We’ve heard what they say about you… how you’re a liability. We’ve been watching for a while.” Back to the one in front of him. Stiles’ head felt cloudy, it was hard to focus and everything they were saying seemed to bounce around for a second before he could comprehend it. “They always have to save you, from stupid things. You’d think that you’d at least learn how to stay out of the way.”

Stiles tried to keep his teeth grit together, to keep from lashing out in the hope of just killing time. He would let them talk, he could handle that.

“You couldn’t even save those two betas so many years ago. What’re their names? Oh, right, Erica and Boyd. You were right there, but instead you had to go find the alpha and he had to come do all the work. They could’ve died in that time. Lucky Gerard was more bark than he was bite.” He realized the girl was probably going to be the one to break him if any of them did. She knew what to say. Psychological warfare was clearly her specialty.

“What do you think Stiles? Think you want to tell us anything yet?” The voice from behind him.

“Bite me.” 

“Is that what you said to your alpha? And he probably said no, you wouldn’t be a good beta.  
You don’t have the control, or the anchor. No one to keep you from shifting at the slightest provocation. Who’s your person? I’ve got it figured out I think.” He held up his hands and put down one finger as he said, “One of the twins is with that other human, the one who’s basically a computer. The other twin is with the banshee. The Kitsune is with the true alpha. The werecoyote is with the kanima. The two first betas are together. The hunter has her dad and I’ve seen how she looks at her old boyfriend. I think something might be happening there. The curly haired one is practically a Hale and the Hale’s have each other. Where does that leave you?”

Stiles glared and the women was tsking as she made her way right next to the hunter in front of Stiles, “He doesn’t even have an answer. There’s no one there for you kid.” 

Then they were asking questions again and Stiles kept his mouth shut. The bat was the first thing, crashing against his already mangled ankles and feet. There was no way for him to keep in the scream but he tried to not look at the camera, maybe that’d be better.

A few questions later it was the guy with the knife who took his turn. He put one hand on Stiles’ arm and leaned down just inches from his face before asking whatever question Stiles wasn’t going to answer. When Stiles just kept his head down, staring at his lap, the man shoved the knife into his stomach and after a slight twist, took it back out again.

Stiles didn’t know how much longer he could take it.  
\---  
“Danny!” Derek was practically growling, “What the hell happened?”

“You need to get to him fast.” Danny said, “He… it’s just a lot blood and I think he might be giving up a little.”

“Stiles doesn’t give up.” Scott said, “Why would you say that?”

“It’ll be okay. He just, they’re saying a lot of stuff and I think it’s getting to him. They also gave him something, some drug but I have no idea what it is.”

“It’ll be okay.” Lydia was saying from the other end, “You’ll be able to find him. Then bring him back here. I’ll get Deaton and Melissa over here but the hospital won’t work.”

“Got it. We’ll call when we’ve got him.” Aiden said, “Let’s go.”

They got to the building that Danny had finally pinpointed. Within seconds of setting their sights on it five hunters were out and pointing guns at them. One quirked an eyebrow and then they were shooting and the pack was running forward.

“Aiden’s shot in the leg.” Allison called out. It was supposed to be part of their system, keep everyone up to date on the rest of the pack to whatever extent they could.

“I’m fine for now.” Aiden said, letting the rest of the pack focus on the final two hunters.

Then three more hunters were coming out and taking them by surprise, getting a few shots in until they were down as well. “I’ll help Aiden.” Allison said, “You guys keep going.”

The next stage was when they got inside to the house. Six hunters were waiting to ambush them when they came through the door one by one. First in was Erica, always gung ho, and she got a bullet in one shoulder for her troubles and another bullet in here thigh. Boyd was right after her and letting out a howl in rage, taking one down before pulling Erica out of the way and lifting her out of the house to get her to where Allison was just finishing up Aiden.

“Go back, I’ve got them.” Allison promised. Boyd looked reluctant, still holding onto Erica’s hand, “Go Boyd! Stiles is still in there and the rest of your pack. Go!”

That tore Boyd away and he was running back into the first floor where it looked like they’d gotten all the hunters down with only minimal more damage to them. Scott was next to Kira and holding onto her arm, assessing the damage as Derek scouted out the rest of the floor.

“It’s probably broken.” Scott said, “I can stay with you…”

“No, go, he needs you. I can handle myself.” Kira promised, giving him a smile and squeezing his arm with her good hand. “Take care of him.”

“I’ll stay with her.” Peter said, “I’ll make sure there’s no stragglers around here anywhere either.”

“Let’s go.” Derek said. Leading them toward a closed door in the back of the house and practically tearing it off of its hinges.

He and Scott were down there first and taking in what was in front of them. Three hunters were around Stiles and four more were behind him, a little farther back. Not one of them looked like they were worried about the pack of 7 standing in front of them.

Scott could hardly breathe through the smell of fear and pain radiating off of Stiles, and the blood. The blood was the worst part. There was something else there that Scott couldn’t quite figure, some chemical and he assumed it was whatever Danny had said they injected him with.

Derek looked like he was practically radiating energy as he tried to figure out just how this was going to go down. He didn’t like how calm the hunters looked, like they knew something he didn’t know. And he didn’t like that Stiles had yet to acknowledge their presence. His head was still down, chin on his chest, and there was blood pooling in his lap and then dripping onto the floor from a knife wound in his stomach. 

“And here’s the pack, just in time to watch him die. He doesn’t have long, you get that right? He’s already lost too much blood, his heart is barely beating, and he doesn’t have the will anymore. So, what’re you going to do?”

That must’ve snapped something in all of them because within an instant they were leaping. Derek went and got the ones closest to Stiles to scatter away while the rest of them took them down one by one. He saw Peter come in sometime during the middle of the fight; Allison, Aiden, and Erica were there just near the end.

It was over almost as quickly as it had started and everyone was left staring down at bodies, something they’d become far too familiar with. Isaac was the first to snap out of hit and he was dropping next to Stiles, undoing the belts around his legs.

Scott and Derek were there next, pulling the ones around his arms off. Cora came behind them and untied the bandana they must’ve just recently tied around his mouth, lifting his head up and patting his cheek a little to try and wake him up.

“Come on Stiles,” Derek grunted, squeezing his shoulder. 

Boyd was throwing something to Isaac and Derek watched as Isaac pushed it up against where the bleeding was. It looked like someone’s sweatshirt. “We need to get him out.” Scott said.

“I’ll go pull a car around.” Malia said, bounding up the stairs and getting to a car as quickly as she could. She couldn’t stand to be in the room with all those bodies anymore, and it didn’t help that there were more when she got upstairs, and then more once she made it outside. It was stifling and the only thing keeping her moving was the fact that Stiles hadn’t been.

Derek scrubbed a hand over his face, trying to figure out what his next step was. He looked around to his pack where they were in states of disarray, ripped clothing and healing injuries. He looked to where Scott was barely keeping it together, still trying to get Stiles to wake up as Isaac kept pushing against his stomach. All of them were looking at him, waiting.

“Allison, can you get this cleaned up? Peter can help. Call your dad if you need it. Parrish will probably come for some logistics as well.” Allison nodded sharply and pulled out her phone, talking in hushed tones to her dad. “A couple of you should stay back and search the house, see if there’s anything here that shouldn’t be found by anyone else. The rest of us will head back to the pack house.”

They all moved a little bit then, breaking from their frozen positions and glancing at where Scott was picking Stiles up. “Bro…”

Scott smiled down at him, “We’ve got you. We’ll get you back and fix you up. It’ll be fine.”

“I don’t think so, Scotty. I can’t – I can’t breathe very well. I need help.” Stiles was trying to get his hands to move, to get one to wrap around Scott’s arm or something. 

Derek grabbed at it, holding on as carefully as he could and starting to pull some of the pain, “You’re going to be okay. Don’t be stupid.”

Then they were moving. Malia was waiting right outside the front door, practically inside of it. Jackson climbed into the front seat, grabbing a hold of her hand to stop it from shaking. He looked back as Isaac crawled into the seat behind Malia, Derek next and then Scott handing Stiles in to them.

“Don’t throw up in the car.” Jackson said, turning to see Stiles smirked just a little bit. 

“I can’t breathe.” Stiles repeated.

Isaac was levering him up a little bit then, stuffing a blanket that seemed to appear out of thin air underneath Stiles’ shoulder blades but keeping his hand on the back of Stiles’ head, “Any better?”

“Thanks.” Stiles’ eyes were closing for longer and longer periods of time and Scott was trying not to gag at the state of the feet he was holding on his lap. None of them were confident that Stiles was going to make it back to the house.  
\---  
“They’re here.” Lydia said, straightening the sheet they’d laid over the dining room table yet again. “They’ve got him. He’s going to be okay.”

Danny gave her a nod and Melissa looked at the both of them anxiously as the door opened up, Malia and Jackson coming through first. Scott was next with Stiles in his arms, he laid him down as gently as he could on the table and then stepped back, hitting the wall and sinking down it. He kept his hands away from his face, staring at them and the blood that was starting to dry.

Melissa instantly switched to nurse mode, pulling her stethoscope up to her ears and putting it to Stiles’ chest. She looked worried and that didn’t help the anxiety that the entire pack had radiating off of them as they stood ramrod straight just a few steps from the table.

“You guys need to back off.” Melissa snapped, “Go get cleaned up. Let me worry about Stiles now. You did your job.”

They hesitate for just a second before all but Derek and Scott are gone and Melissa takes a deep breath. She goes to work then, Deaton helping her. They methodically work their way down his body. She puts an oxygen mask around his face as Deaton starts an IV, they look at his fingers for a second before turning to Derek, “They need to be reset.”

Derek swallows hard and nods, looking at Scott who’s head turns up and he looks at him with those damn puppy eyes that have Derek feeling guilty for just taking that step toward Stiles. “Maybe you should go clean up Scott, so you don’t have to hear it.” 

“I need to be here. In case he wakes up.” Scott says firmly, standing up and moving closer.  
“You need to change and rinse off. Send someone else down to help if you want but you aren’t any help in the state you’re in.” Deaton says, “Send Isaac down, he can help.”

Scott looks like he wants to object, but his mom is nodding him along and his shoulders slump as he crosses the room. Derek gives him a nod and then grabs a hold of Stiles’ hand, 

“Which ones?”

“Pinky, ring, and index.” Melissa says. Her professional face drops for just a second as she glances up at Stiles’ face but then she’s right back in the mode, cleaning off his stomach and starting to sew him up.

Derek grabbed a hold of the pinky and just as he finished cracking it into place Stiles woke up. And he didn’t just snap his eyes open, he screamed.

His scream brought half the pack back down the stairs, the rest staring down from the top. Then Stiles was yelling about something and flailing his arms around like he was trying to bat something away. “Hold him down.” Deaton instructed.

Derek held down the arm he’d lost control of, Scott leaping to the other side and doing the same thing. Jackson was sticking a hand under his head to stop it from banging on the table again. He managed to get a hand on either side of his head and held it tight. 

“Stiles!” Jackson practically yelled as he leaned over him, “Get it together! Look at me, it’s Jackson.”

Stiles seemed to get a better grip, he stopped fighting and stared straight up at Jackson who smirked a little bit, “You good?”

“Good.” Stiles said, voice cracking a little bit. He started to shake some but it seemed to be normal cold shakes instead of the tremors that indicated something much worse. “Scott?”

“Right here bro. Are you alright?” Scott asked, moving to be in Stiles line of sight a little easier. Jackson moved back and glanced up at where the rest of the pack was waiting.

“Stay here.”

“Of course. Derek’s got to do a few more fingers though, okay? I’ll take as the edge off as much as I can but you’ve got to stay still. You pulled out some of the stitches that my mom had managed to do. Are you okay? What was that about?”

“I don’t know. Probably whatever drugs they gave me.” Stiles said, starting to come down from whatever had just happened. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry.” Derek said, “You ready?”

They managed to make it through the rest of the fingers without any problems, aside from Derek feeling like shit every time he looked at Stiles’ face scrunched up in pain. Scott gave his shoulder a squeeze once they were done and then looked to his mom, “Anything else?”

“I’ll leave you guys to wrap up his feet and hands but he needs to shower or something first, get the blood off and everything. Can you manage that?”

“Yes.” Derek answered immediately, “Thank you. So much. Deaton too.”

Deaton nodded from where he was packing up all his supplies, “I’ll take the IV out now, it was mainly just to get some more fluids into his system and some morphine but he’s got you guys for that. Keep him nourished and watch what happens with the drugs. If anything worse than what happened earlier happens again, call me right away.”

Scott and Derek both nodded as Stiles stayed still on the table. Melissa leaned down and whispered something to him that made him smile a bit before she and Deaton were heading out, “Your dad will come by tomorrow once he and Parrish figure out what they’re going to do.” 

“Thanks Ms. McCall.” Stiles said.

“Anything for you sweetheart.”

Scott and Derek glanced at each other before down at Stiles who was still lying on a blood stained sheet. “How do we get him up without hurting him?” Scott asked.

“I’ve got him. We’ll use the bathroom on this floor…”

“The one upstairs is bigger, it’ll be easier and you’ll probably put him in one of those beds anyway.” Scott interrupted, “Let’s go. You ready Stiles?”

“Ready.”

Then Derek was doing his best to scoop Stiles up from the table without jostling too many of the injuries. Scott lead him upstairs to wear everyone was trying to look busy throughout the bedrooms and pushed into Derek’s room then into the bathroom connected to it.

Scott started the water as Derek set Stiles on the seat of the toilet. He pulled off the rest of Stiles’ shirt and then looked at his pants and then back up to him, “Just, cut them off or something.”

“Don’t take my pants!” Stiles voice pitched up as Derek flicked out his claws.

“You can’t stand, it wouldn’t be worth it to keep them anyway. They’re covered in blood.” Derek said, “We’ll leave your boxers on if you really want.”

“Please, preserve some of my dignity.” Stiles said. The two both looked at him and his absolutely wrecked voice and hoped that he wasn’t just acting okay for them. “Stop staring.”

Scott coughed a bit and then gestured to the water. Stiles nodded and watched as Derek cut off his pants and then lifted him up, setting him as carefully as he could into the tub. Stiles tried not to wince when he finally gets settled, “I’m okay.”

“You have seven broken fingers, a stab wound in your stomach, your basically don’t have an uninjured bone in your foot, and you’re drugged. How is that fine?” Scott asked, sounding absolutely baffled from where he was sitting on the lid of the toilet.

Stiles just shrugged a little and gave him a smirk, “Cause you guys saved me. And the only thing that they did that actually hurt me was saying that you guys wouldn’t come.”

“We’ll always come.” Derek assured.

“Cause that’s what packs do.” Stiles finished.

“No, cause that’s what a family does.” Scott said.

The tranquility of the moment lasted for about a second before Stiles was coughing out a wet laugh and splashing water and Scott and inevitably hitting Derek in the crossfire. “That was the cheesiest thing I’ve ever heard you say!”

“But you’re happier and calmer than you’ve been since we got you. So that’s okay.” 

“I guess you’re right. Now get me out. Everything hurts and I want to lay in a bed.”

They managed to get him into a bed and then split up the wrapping that they’d have to do. Derek ended up at one hand, Scott at the other again, Lydia down at one foot smiling sadly up at Stiles when she got her first look at how bad it was, and then Cora taking the other one. Scott was the lucky one who finished first so he got the job of covering up all of the stitches with gauze and then trying to figure out a way to wrap all the way around Stiles’ torso without moving him too much.

When Stiles was all bandaged up and wearing whatever baggy clothes Derek could find in the house, probably Isaac’s, the pack congregated into the room. Somehow, Derek had managed to get a room big enough all to himself that the whole back could fit comfortably in and Stiles was incredibly pleased, if not a little flabbergasted, at that moment for that architectural choice.

It ended up with him in the middle of the bed, about a thousand pillows propping him up, with Erica on one side and Scott on the other. Stiles had a feeling Scott wasn’t about to leave his side any time soon. Kira squeezed in on the other side of Scott, of course, as Lydia, Danny, and Derek sat at the foot of the bed facing Stiles. Aiden, Allison, Malia, and Jackson had pulled the couch that usually rested on the wall of the room up to the side of the bed and were taking up residency on it while Ethan, Boyd, Isaac, and Cora had the little (five foot long) chest that Derek kept his massive amount of black shirts in pulled up on the other side. Peter came in a couple minutes later with about six pizzas, three bags of Chinese food, and three bags of Mexican food to distribute to the masses.

“Thanks.” Derek said, “For the record, good job today guys.”

Stiles nodded along with him, “Yeah, I owe you one.”

A small explosion of arguments came up and Stiles smirked at them while Erica spoke up, “Don’t worry Batman, you’ll save us next time.”


	6. Burnt Toast (Isaac)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cora gave him a sloppy kiss on the cheek and then yanked him over to the table, “Missed you for breakfast this morning. Peter made amazing eggs and bacon. You missed out.”
> 
> “Stiles made me toast. And it was burnt.” Isaac muttered.

It was three in the morning. On a Tuesday, well technically Wednesday morning. Sties phone should not be ringing. He slapped around on the table before groggily grabbing it and slapping for the call accept button. He managed to hit it in a few seconds and put the phone to his ear.

“What.”

“It’s Isaac.”

“Okay. What do you want?” 

“I need some help.” That woke Stiles up a little bit and he sat up some in his bed and rubbed at his eyes, “I’m like twenty miles outside of town and I need to be picked up.”

“Wait, wait, wait; first, why are you so far out of town? Second, why can’t you just run back? And third, why’d you call me?” 

“I got in a fight with Derek. I run when I get upset, you know… and I tweaked my ankle a bit. It’s healing and almost healed but I don’t think I’ll be able to run on it. Please, Stiles?”

“Yeah, yeah of course. Send me your GPS and I’ll be there soon.”

“Thank you so much Stiles!” Isaac was practically gushing with affection as he disconnected the call and sat back against a tree on the side of the road. He wasn’t even in a damn city, he’d just run farther into the forest it seemed like. His ankle was still tender but it was finally starting to go down in swelling at least. He sent Stiles his location and then pulled his arms into the body of his shirt. He was only wearing his sleep t-shirt and some thin sweatpants when he’d run off and now that he was cooling down the fall cold was getting to him.

Stiles pulled a sweatshirt on and grabbed a water bottle from the fridge before heading out and starting up the jeep. Luckily, his dad had the night shift so he wasn’t anything to worry about. He rubbed his hands together and flipped on the heater as high as it would go. 

Hopefully Isaac was warm enough.

He followed the directions his phone barked out and thanks to the lack of early morning traffic made it to where he saw Isaac along the side of the road just fifteen minutes later. He pulled off to the side and reached across to push open the door before Isaac even got there. Isaac jumped in gave Stiles a shy smile as he threw his hands up right next to the vents.

“Here.” Stiles said, handing him the water bottle. Then he reached behind his seat and grabbed the emergency blanket and handed that to him too. “Are you alright?”

“I’m okay. I just, I didn’t know who else to call.”

“Don’t worry about it bro. What was the fight about?”

Isaac fidgeted a little and shrugged as he curled his feet up underneath him, “It’s nothing really. It was just tense and we were both tired and pissed off. He said something about me not cleaning up and I yelled that I didn’t have to live with him and, well, you know. It was my fault. I knew he was in a bad mood and I just kept pushing him.”

“It’s not your fault. It’s not all his either but the two of you have got to figure out to talk to each other. He’s like your big brother. You’re bound to fight. You should text him though and tell him you’re alright. Form what I know about Derek, he’s probably sitting right next to the door waiting for you to run back in and he can yell at you while also being really happy you’re okay.”

“I don’t really want to go back tonight.” Isaac admitted, “I just feel like a dick and I think we need a break from each other.”

“Okay. Just send him a text. You can stay at my place.”

Isaac nodded and pulled his phone out, sending a short text to Derek and then throwing his phone back into the cup holder next to him. He was finally warming up by the time they pulled into Stiles’ driveway and was reluctant to shed the blanket but Stiles tsked at him and yanked it off, “I have blankets in my house, that one stays in here for this exact reason.”

“Saving stupid werewolves?”

“No, helping out one of my best friends you idiot.” Stiles smirked, “Come on, we still have a couple hours before we have to be up for school.”

They got up to Stiles’ room and Isaac immediately went for the drawers where he knew he’d find an extra pair of sweatpants and a t-shirts and by the time he turned around Stiles was already crawling back into bed. Isaac crawled over top of him and was pulling the blankets up to his chin.

Stiles was almost asleep when Isaac grunted a little bit and turned so he was facing Stiles, tapping him on his shoulder. Stiles rolled his eyes but turned to face him, “What’s up?”

“He won’t be mad at me, will he?”

“Isaac, you’ve gotten into a thousand fights. It’ll be fine.” Then Stiles’ phone buzzed again and he grabbed it and squinted at the bright screen, “Also, Derek just texted me and said thanks for getting you. And to tell you that he was making your favorite for dinner tomorrow.”

Isaac smiled a little in the dark and faced the phone towards him, reading through it just to be sure that Stiles wasn’t making it up for his own benefit. When he was confident that it was a real text he turned back onto his back and fell asleep almost immediately.

Stiles texted Derek back, telling him that Isaac was asleep and happy and would be there. He got a response in just a couple seconds: You can come too, if you really want.

Stiles held back a smile and contemplated what to text back. He ended up just saying that it was possible, but probably not because they needed to have some family time.

When he woke up the next morning, Isaac was still passed out next to him except he’d managed to turn on his side and throw his arm of Stiles’ middle. He was also snoring right into Stiles’ ear and managed to drool a little bit onto the pillow.

“Come on space heater, we’ve got to go to school. And you stink from your late night run so we’ve both got to shower before we go.”

“Just ten more minutes.”

“You brat. I’ll go shower and then you’re up.” Strangely, Stiles was feeling like he was a parent or something in this situation. And he wasn’t particularly enjoying it. So, in retaliation he yanked the covers off of Isaac as he headed toward the bathroom.

“Asshole.” Isaac yelled after him.

When they got to school the next morning Scott and Jackson were immediately sniffing the two of them. And then looking at each other and doing it again just to assure themselves of their findings. “So… you gonna tell us why you two smell so much like each other?”

“We had a sleepover.” Stiles shrugged, before Isaac could get awkward and study his reason. 

“I was helping Isaac with calculus and it got late so he just spend the night.”

The two seemed to accept that and Jackson started ribbing Isaac about the last fight they’d had where Isaac had almost been knocked out because he ran into a tree. It seemed to lighten Isaac up and Stiles gave Jackson a pat on the back as he and Scott split off from them, heading to their own class.

Once Isaac got back to the pack house with Derek, any awkwardness he was expecting was immediately diminished because Cora was jumping up and wrapping around him. She gave him a sloppy kiss on the cheek and then yanked him over to the table, “Missed you for breakfast this morning. Peter made amazing eggs and bacon. You missed out.”

“Stiles made me toast. And it was burnt.” Isaac muttered.

“Simplicity isn’t his strong suit.” Derek said, “He can make an entire breakfast casserole but he can’t pour a bowl of cereal without missing the bowl.”

When Isaac let out a little laugh, Derek smiled and gave his back a pat. It seemed like they were going to be alright. Then again, they always were. And, maybe, they had Stiles to thank.

Derek sent him a quick thank you text, just because otherwise Stiles would taunt him for it or bring it up at some unnecessary time to get back at him. He wondered if Stiles ever didn't have his phone in his hands because he was just about to put his phone back in his pocket when he got the response: no problem. you owe me though. he drooled on my pillow and said my breakfast was unsatisfactory.


	7. Left Over Love (Allison)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allison isn't sure if she should stick around. Scott has someone new and it seems like everyone else is pairing off as well. Stiles talks some sense into her.

“Stiles?” He pushed the phone a little closer to his ear, wondering if it was just bad connection or if she was crying.

“Allison? Are you okay?”

“Can you meet me somewhere?”

“Of course. Where?”

“Down by that little pond. You know like ten minutes away from the pack house. Is that okay?”

“Yes. I’ll see you there.”

The rainy weather seemed perfect for Allison’s mood and Stiles had to groan a little bit at the fact that she was standing out by the pond without a jacket or umbrella. He grabbed the one in his backseat and then ran out to meet her, holding it over the both of them. 

“What’s going on?” 

She finally looked over at him and he could see that she must’ve been crying for a while, her eyes were red rimmed and her face pale. But, she wasn’t crying any longer. Stiles wasn’t sure if that was good or not. There tended to be a line of over-crying that once you crossed, you couldn’t cry any longer and he thought that she might be at that point.

“I… I still love Scott. You know? I know you know. I think Lydia does too. It’s just – I know he’s happy with Kira and I don’t want to get in the way of that. But sometimes when we’re together he just looks at me like there still might be something there. I don’t know what to do! I just, he was everything to me for so long. You know?”

Stiles took a second to make sure she was done talking before clearing his voice and saying, “I think you’ll always love him. At least a little bit. You guys were each other’s first real relationships and first ‘I love yous’… that counts for something and it always will. But are you sure you still love him? Or just love the idea of being with him? Cause at the end there it wasn’t going well for either of you and as much as you guys would kill for each other I sometimes worried that you were going to kill each other. I mean, you shot him with an arrow.”

Allison smiled a little, “That was one time. And it was an accident. You know that! He got in the way when I was practicing.” She paused and fiddled her hands together before wrapping them around herself to try and get warm, “You might be right. But how he is with Kira, and they’re so happy. I miss that. Everyone has someone in the pack it seems like. I mean, except Peter but he’ll never really be with anyone again I don’t think. I always end up paired with him while everyone else has a person that they care for.”

“Everyone cares for everyone. You know that. And what’re you talking about? There’s like six singles in the group. Me, Isaac, Derek, Cora, Peter, and you. And I guess Jackson and Malia but they’re practically together.”

Allison raised an eyebrow at him and coughed a little bit into her elbow.

“What?”

“We all know that Isaac and Cora are practically together. And, well, you and Derek…”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Me and Derek nothing. Derek is just a friend. A friend who saves my life and happens to find me in a lot of unfortunate situations, yes, but still just a friend. Besides, he’s kind of a lone wolf. Cora is the only Hale that seems to have a grip on their love life.”

“You can deny it all you want Stiles but we all know it’s true.”

Stiles just sealed his lips and rolled his eyes, not opening that can of worms at the moment. He then grabbed a hold of Allison’s hand and gave it a squeeze. She smiled up at him and then pulled him towards his jeep. “I’m cold, let’s talk inside of here.”

“Brilliant idea young huntress.”

Allison blushed a little bit and climbed into his passenger seat as he shook off the umbrella before throwing it into his backseat. They sat in the quiet for a little bit, Allison pulling the blanket from the back that Isaac had used not a week earlier.

“I think… I think I need to move on. And to move on I can’t be seeing him all the time.”  
Stiles head whipped to face her in surprise. She stayed staring stubbornly out the window, trying not to cry again. He didn’t know what he was supposed to say at first. As a good friend he should support her no matter what, but as a selfish friend he definitely wanted her to stick around for as long as possible. And that meant she shouldn’t leave any time soon.

“I think that you should do whatever you need to do but you should also know that you wouldn’t just be leaving behind an ex-boyfriend. You’d be leaving fifteen of your best friends and we’d all miss you so much. Scott would too.”

“I can’t keep being the loner.”

“Want to know a secret?”

“Always.” She turned towards him a little bit, using her sleeve to brush away the few spare tears that managed to leak out.

“I think there’s going to be a new beta soon. That Liam kid. Scott is trying to get Derek to bite him and I’m pretty sure that Derek is going to go for it. The pack is strong and he’d be the first beta that was brought in by bite after the pack merged. It’d be good for the pack.”

Allison was giving him an odd look as she said, “How do you get this information? It’s supposed to be pretty confidential I thought. Only between Scott and Derek in this case.”

Stiles shrugged a little bit, “Don’t tell anyone else. Although, I’m pretty sure that’ll be the subject of our next pack meeting. But, what I was getting at was that you wouldn’t be the only ‘loner’ in the group. Even though you’re not a loner now.”

“I’m going to come back to the fact that you know in a little while but also, that won’t make things better. It’s just another person that won’t be mine.”

“Allison…” Stiles scrubbed at his face, trying to figure out what to say, “You’re a wonderful human, you’re the best hunter I’ve ever seen and you can hold your own better than anyone else I know. We would miss you. So much. And the pack would never be the same without you. You’re a big part of the pack, more than just Scott’s ex.”

She smiled again and squeezed his arm, “Thank you Stiles. It means a lot. What were you doing anyway when I called?”

Stiles turned red and shifted in his seat a little bit, causing Allison to practically light up as she pointed an accusatory finger at him, “You were with Derek! Oh my gosh, I was right. Of course I was right! I can’t believe you left.”

“Allison, for the last time, Derek and I are nothing but friends. And I’ll always come for you, you’ve saved my ass enough times that it’s the least I could do!”

“Well, let’s get you back to him then. Also, I think Danny might be mad when Liam gets the bite. Ethan’s been pushing for it for ages. Any secret information on that?” Stiles’ lips were pressed into a firm line as he shook his head back and forth, making Allison roll her eyes and smack him lightly. “Fine, don’t tell me. But I expect it to come up within the next couple of meetings!”

Stiles lit up at that and leaned over to give her a kiss on the check, “So you’re going to stay?”

“Yes, Stiles. I’ll stay. Just to keep the rest of you in line.” Allison knew she made the right choice when Stiles looked like he’d just own the lottery. They were her pack, she knew that. She was supposed to stay and this is where she was supposed to be, she could get over Scott.

“That’s all I ask.”


	8. Resident Humans (Liam)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I got in a fight...” Liam growled out, “With my dad. He pissed me off. And I thought I’d hurt him so I ran. When I got out here I couldn’t help shifting. And now I can’t shift back.”

Scott was freaking out. He had given Liam the bite, he was the one who was supposed to watch over him. He was a co-Alpha in one of the fastest growing packs in the country. But he couldn’t figure out how to get Liam to calm the fuck down. He also knew that the hunters were watching them closely, knew that if Liam made one wrong move then he’d be shot down in half a second. Worst of all, Liam didn’t trust him at the moment. Every piece of his rage was focused on Scott.

So, Scott called the person who he knew would always come. Stiles.

“What’s up Scotty?”

“I’m with Liam. He’s freaking out and I can’t get him to calm down. Can you help?”

“Where’re you at?”

“Out by that spot I met Allison that time, you know, where you had to help me set up that surprise?”

“Yeah, I know the place. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Is he okay?”

“He’s barely holding it together. The only thing that’s keeping him from shifting is that he’s got his claws digging into his leg. He’s controlling it with pain, he can’t figure out his anchor. He’s pissed at me so I can’t even get close to him.”

“Okay. I’ll be there, just hold on. At least keep him in control for a little while longer.” Stiles said. He pulled up next to the curb as he disconnected the call from Scott. Then, he was running up to the front door and rapping his knuckles against it until a slightly annoyed Mason came to the door, “Hey Mason, come with me please. Liam needs you.”

Mason looked a little shaken up but nodded and slipped on the tennis shoes he had sitting next to the door. Then he was sitting in Stiles’ passenger side jeep and they were speeding off into the preserve. Once they got too far for Stiles’ jeep to be able to drive Stiles was jumping out and heading off without another word to Mason, carrying a baseball bat on his shoulder.

Mason hurried to catch up and then finally decided to break the silence that seemed to come down on them as soon as he’d gotten into the car, “What’s going on?”

“I know you already know Liam’s a werewolf. He’s struggling a little bit, with control. When we get to him, I want you to stay back until I tell you otherwise. If Liam’s too far gone you’ll just be in danger.” Stiles explained. “Now quiet, we’re close.”

Scott looked back as he heard Stiles coming toward him, another person accompanying him but no one that Scott knew off of a heartbeat. As soon as Stiles got into the little clearing, Scott was grabbing a hold of his shoulder, “He’s sitting over there. Careful.”

“I’ve got this. I handled it when you were newly turned; didn’t I?”

Scott smiled and turned to look at Mason who was standing back a little bit, looking nervously between those two and Liam sitting a little farther away. Then Stiles was moving towards Liam, making deliberately loud steps so Liam wouldn’t be startled and lash out. 

“Liam…”

The youngest beta turned and looked at Stiles, half wolfed out and still digging one hand of claws into his leg. He looked terrified, and he looked like he wasn’t quite sure what to make of Stiles being there. But then he was growling out something before shaking his head a little bit, “I can’t… I can’t control it.”

“Yes you can Liam. Listen to me, okay? You’re alright. This isn’t bad, it’s normal. Now, what happened? Why are you so emotional right now?”

“I got in a fight...” Liam growled out, “With my dad. He pissed me off. And I thought I’d hurt him so I ran. When I got out here I couldn’t help shifting. And now I can’t shift back.”

“Why can’t Scott help you?”

“It’s his fucking fault!” Liam leapt up then, advancing toward Stiles a few steps before Scott was growling behind him and Stiles was raising a hand to each of them.

“Calm down. Scott, back off. Liam, I’m not a threat to you. I’m pack. You know that. Back off.” Stiles still had his bat handy, but he was keeping it hidden a little bit, trying not to threaten Liam’s wolf side at all. “Liam, Scott’s your alpha. He’s not going to hurt you. But forget about him for a while.”

Liam kept retracting his claws, letting them in and out and then growling in frustration when he couldn’t completely transform back. “I don’t have an anchor.”

“You do.” Stiles assured him, “Trust me. Think about your friends, your family. Think about how much you’d do to keep them safe.”

Stiles looked back to Mason then, gesturing for him to come forwards. Mason came up quietly and stood a little behind Stiles. Stiles kept staring at him though and raised an eyebrow, Mason figured he wanted him to talk, “Liam…”

Liam perked up, back tensing as he stayed facing away from them. He was still trying to get his claws to retract but his nervous shaking seemed to have stopped. “Liam, it’s Mason. Come on bro, I know you can do it..”

“Just think about what you’d do for Mason.” Stiles said, “Think about the fact that you’d never want to hurt him. Now turn around and look at him.”

It took him a little bit, but after psyching himself up he was turning around, face still wolfed out but his hands finally not digging into his leg. “Mason.”

“Yeah, bro. Nice shift, this is the first time I’ve really seen your wolfy face. It doesn’t exactly suit you but I figure it doesn’t really suit anyone.” Liam seemed to be calming down some more so Mason kept talking, “Okay. Get it together, Liam. Nothing with your dad is going to be permanent.”

“You didn’t hurt him Liam.” Stiles said, “That shows how good your control is. You kept it together around him because you cared about him. Okay? It’s going to be okay.”

Finally, Liam was shifting back. It was taking some time, and he was clearly struggling but within a couple minutes his face was back to fully human and he was breathing in a sigh of relief, “I’m good.”

Stiles was walking forward then, giving Liam a pat on the shoulder, “There you go.”

Liam moved forward then, giving Mason a tight hug, “Thank you.” 

Mason just nodded and then threw his arm around Liam’s shoulders, walking with him toward where the car was parked and leaving Scott to sigh in relief. He grabbed the baseball bat that Stiles had dropped on the ground and handed it back to him. “Thank you, bro. Seriously.”

“It’s no problem. He’s pack now.” Stiles assured, “You alright? It looks like he got in some good swipes, your shirt is all ripped up and you've got dried blood on you.”

“I'm fine. I've healed. It's just, he’s my first real beta and he doesn’t even trust me.” Scott said miserably, “What kind of alpha does that make me?”

“It makes you normal. He will trust you, just give him some time to get used to all of this. You didn’t really have an alpha when you got turned so you don’t know how it feels for him. It’s probably a little weird, someone with the ability to have all that control over him, he’s freaked out.”

“Well, thanks again. By the way, I need a ride. I ran out here after him.”

Stiles rolled his eyes but nodded, starting to walk through the trees with Scott trailing after him, “You and Liam owe Mason and I dinner. Your resident humans back to save your sorry asses.”

“Fair enough.”


	9. Mate Bond (Boyd)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Erica, do you know where you’re headed?”
> 
> “No Stiles, quite frankly I don’t! But I should, shouldn’t I? Cause he’s my mate and I’m supposed to know where he is, and if he’s okay. And I can’t feel anything right now! What if that means he’s dead!”

“Where’s Boyd?!” Erica was flailing, her head whipping back and forth between the five in front of her when there was supposed to be six, “Where is he!?”

“Erica.” Stiles snapped, “Keep it together!”

Erica glared at him, then she took in everyone else around him, Isaac, Lydia, Ethan, and Cora. She ran her hands through her hair in frustration and dialed Boyd’s number on her phone again. “He’s not answering! He always answers me! Don’t you get it? Something is wrong.”

“Then we’ll split up. We’re the only ones here. The rest of the pack is out of town. Erica, you’re with me. Cora and Ethan, Lydia and Isaac. Okay? Let’s go. We’ll find him.” Stiles instructed.

“Derek would be pissed if we split up.” Lydia informed him, “You know he would. We’re supposed to stick together if something like this happens.”

“Yeah well Derek isn’t here.” Stiles said, “And unless any of you have a better plan to find Boyd then we’re doing this. It’s not my fault he decided that this was the perfect weekend for trying to make a treaty with another pack.”

Lydia looked a little taken aback, as did the rest of them, but soon Erica was snapping them out of it and grabbing a hold of Stiles’ wrist, “I’m with Stiles. Let’s move.”

At first, Stiles just followed Erica. He trusted that she had some lead on Boyd, whether it be scent or just a feeling. But soon it felt like she was just trying to keep moving, not really sure where they were going or where Boyd could be. “Erica, do you know where you’re headed?”

“No Stiles, quite frankly I don’t! But I should, shouldn’t I? Cause he’s my mate and I’m supposed to know where he is, and if he’s okay. And I can’t feel anything right now! What if that means he’s dead!”

“He’s not dead. The rest of the pack would have felt it. I’m guessing someone is somehow muting your mate bond, so we’re probably looking for a witch, or at the very least someone with magic. Magic smells a little bitter is what Derek tells me, so see if you can find any of that. He’ll be okay Erica.”

She took a deep breath to calm herself, and then another that lead her to turn a sharp 90 degrees to her left, following a scent. She was moving quickly, and Stiles was doing his best to keep up and not trip over all of the roots and branches that she so gracefully leaped over. All of a sudden she was screeching to a halt and Stiles was less than a couple inches away from running into her back when he slid to a stop.

“What Erica?” She looked down at her feet and Stiles’ eyes followed her path, “Mountain ash.”

“He’s close.” Erica said, looking around, “Break the line Stiles.”

“No, you stay here.”

“What! Are you kidding me? No! I’m coming with you!”

“Erica, whoever is doing this is blocking your ability to sense Boyd, and his to sense you. I’m guessing that they are completely blocking your werewolf abilities. I don’t know what will happen if I break that line, it looks like there’s something else in the line which means that breaking it could break some sort of spell. If that spell is keeping Boyd alive, then I’m not breaking it. So stay back. I’ll break it when I know it’s safe. Call to the rest of the pack, get them here.”

Erica wanted to lash out, she wanted to protest, but she knew Stiles was right. He was always right, so she gave him a stiff nod and pulled her cell phone out. Just as Stiles was about to cross the line she grabbed a hold of his arm, “Please save him. You don’t know what it’s like, to not feel your mate. Please.”

Stiles nodded and then was going over, heading a little farther in. I took less than thirty seconds for him to see Boyd, and three witches standing in front of him. Stiles put a hand into his jean pocket, getting a grip on the knife he had there and wishing that he’d thought to bring his bat on this particular rendezvous. The three turned to face him calmly, almost smiling. Boyd was tied up to a tree, eyes open but not seeming to register what was happening in front of him. There were thick ropes wrapped around him; one around his torso, right under his armpits and another around his stomach. His legs were bound together at the ankles and then another rope circled his thighs and right under his knees.

Stiles took a deep breath, trying to figure out just what he was supposed to do. He knew he wouldn’t be able to overpower all three witches at once, that meant he’d have to break whatever spell they had Boyd under and then get him out, and let the rest of the pack into the circle.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“We just want to learn how to control the pack.” The smallest one said, quirking her eyebrow as if it was obvious. She stood at most 5 feet tall and she had chin length brown hair, her head tilted to the side as she studied Stiles, “And to control them, you cut them off from each other.”

“We’ve only figured out how to do it between mates,” Another said, she had long red hair and was a good foot taller than the first one, she seemed to be the leader of the bunch. Stiles figured it probably wasn’t a good thing that they were telling him this, it probably meant that they weren’t worried about him getting away and telling anybody their plans. “What do you think your alpha is feeling now? I wonder if it works for human/werewolf mates. Probably not quite yet.”

“Derek’s not my mate.” Stiles said through gritted teeth. Again, it took him a second to realize what they were doing. Sidetracking him as they spread out in front of him, almost circling him. He heard a howl and knew immediately that it was Ethan’s, Cora’s echoing shortly after that. Isaac and Lydia must not have been there yet or Lydia would’ve pushed her way into the circle to help, whether that was the smart idea or not.

He figured that they weren’t going to get there in time. That meant that it was up to Stiles and he would have to move quickly or he’d be dead before they could get him help. So, he moved. He pulled his knife out of his pocket and in one swift motion he was lunging forward into the witch that hadn’t yet spoken. She was taken off guard and went down quickly. The other two were moving towards him, the short one with her hands in front of her whispering something under her breath. Stiles ducked down, knowing that she was aiming for his chest with whatever spell she was spewing. To break the spell on Boyd, he’d have to kill the both of them. The only way to break a spell was to have the caster remove it or to kill the caster. He knew they weren’t going to do him any favors, so that left him with the second choice.

He swiped his leg out, catching the shorter girl and knocking her to the ground. He barely reached her, not getting a chance to use his knife before he was being thrown off by what felt like a gust of air. The red head was smiling down at him and pulling the shorter one to her feet, then they were walking towards him again. Luckily, he was closest to Boyd. He sliced through the top two ropes before they were on him again. 

He pulled the red head down with him as he fell and the knife went into her stomach. She was the one, Boyd was coming out of the trance, growling quietly before it turned into a full blown howl. Four answering howls could be heard. That meant Isaac and Lydia had made it.

“Break the line!” Stiles yelled.

The petite witch looked furious. As expected, Stiles had probably just killed her equivalent of a pack. She was running at him and Stiles could see Boyd unraveling the ropes around him to his side. He dodged out of the way of the girl, away from Boyd to give him a little bit more time to get out. She threw out her hands and Stiles felt the breath knocked out of him, causing him to stop in his tracks.

Then his knees were buckling as an invisible hand circled his neck. He could see the witch in front of him holding her hand out, controlling him and keeping his airway blocked off. Stiles could see Boyd hunched over, catching his own breath and trying to gather his bearings. 

A few seconds later, Stiles’ vision narrowing, the five others were bursting into the clearing. Fashionably late of course. Erica was sprinting over to Boyd, running her hands up and down his arms then her hands going gently around his neck as she pulled him in for a kiss. He was just dying is all, he didn’t need help or anything.

Luckily, the others seemed to realize that. Lydia was going to the down witches, making sure they had no way to get back up and attack. Isaac was leaping at the witch who was so focused on Stiles that she didn’t even realize that the pack was there until she was going down under Isaac’s weight. Her spell was holding though and Stiles was clawing at his throat. 

“You have to kill her Isaac!” Cora said, “She’s still suffocating Stiles…”

Ethan and Cora were next to Sties, holding him up but unable to do anything else until Isaac snapped the girls neck. Grimacing at the sound and trying his best not to think about the fact that she looked very close to his age. Stiles collapsed to the ground, his face saved from a mouthful of dirt thanks to the two holding him up. He took in gasping breaths of air and planted his hands firmly in front of him on the ground, “I’m good.”

His voice was wrecked, he sounded like he’d smoked three packs a day for upwards of twenty years. Isaac looked to him and then back at where Erica was still studying Boyd, then to Lydia was collecting little trinkets that were scattered all over the ground.

“Boyd?” Stiles croaked out.

Boyd looked over to him, giving him a rare smile that usually only Erica got, “Thanks Stiles. Seriously. Also, your phone hasn’t stopped vibrating since you got to me. Neither has Cora’s. We should regroup at the house. I feel like I just got run over by a bus.”

“Residual magic.” Lydia said flippantly, “You’ll need rest and water, it’s more psychosomatic than anything. Stiles, Deaton should check you out and you need to stop talking, your vocal chords were nearly crushed.”

“You good to walk?” Cora asked, looking over the rest of Stiles as she helped pull him up.

“I’m…” he was cut off by Ethan hitting the backside of his head and he glared at him before nodding.

“Let’s get moving.” Erica said, still not moving away from Boyd’s side.

Stiles pulled his phone out of his pocket, still receiving a call from Scott as Cora pulled out hers where Derek’s name was lighting up her screen. “I’ll answer.” Cora said. “What is it Derek?”

“What the hell is going on? Is Stiles okay? And Boyd?”

“Yeah… he’s fine… we had a run in with some witches but he’s okay now. He might not be able to talk for a little bit but he’s alright. Boyd is too, he’s a little worse for wear but he should be fine by tomorrow if he gets some rest. How’d you know?”

“I could feel Boyd and then I couldn’t feel Stiles. We’re on our way home and then we want a full rundown. Scott’s been calling for the past fifteen minutes too. You need to answer your fucking phones when we call.”

“Derek, calm down. We’re all fine. We were a little busy. We’ll explain when you get home. Everyone’s alright though. How’d the meeting go?”

“We’ll talk later.”

Everyone was looking at Cora as she disconnected the call, only Stiles and Lydia didn’t know what Derek had said. “He knew something was wrong, obviously, with Boyd. He couldn’t feel Stiles though, that’s what really freaked him out. Why couldn’t he? We all could.”

Stiles just shook his head, not believing it and also not wanting to explain it even if he could at the moment so he just stuttered out, “House.”

“I’m just going to collect some of the mountain ash mixture.” Lydia said, walking a little bit ahead of them, “It might help us figure out just what they were trying to do. Although I have a feeling someone here knows more than they’re letting on.”

Lydia was eyeing Stiles as she spoke and the others gave him a curious look. He gestured to Boyd, figuring that they’d take the bait that it could be him considering he’d been there the entire time. Boyd shook his head quickly though, “I don’t remember anything after them tying me up.”

“Back to the house we go.” Cora said cheerfully, clapping her hands together, “Then Stiles will have some paper to write on to explain to us just what happened here. Did you call Deaton Isaac?”

“Yeah, he’ll meet us there.”

Once they were back at the house and Erica had properly swaddled Boyd and condemned him to remain sitting on the couch the rest of the evening, Deaton walked in. He checked over Boyd first, reaffirming what Lydia had said and telling him to rest up and drink up. Then he went over to Stiles and gently prodded along the handprint bruise circling his neck.

“Miss Martin was right again, you’ll need to keep quiet for a while, which I know is hard for you. It doesn’t look like it was bad enough to leave any permanent damage, they didn’t manage to crush your windpipe luckily. A little residual magic as well but nothing that’ll hurt you, you’ll just be tired for a while, probably longer than Boyd because she meant to kill you which is a lot stronger than whatever they did to Boyd.”

“Not necessarily.” Stiles said, regretting it when it felt like he’d swallowed screws, and due to the glares that both Lydia and Deaton sent him. Cora just smirked a little bit and handed over a cup of tea. He smiled gratefully at her.

“Once you can speak, we’ll figure out what happened. When will the rest of the pack be back?”

“Late tonight.” Isaac said, “We’ll call you tomorrow.”

Deaton nodded and packed up his things before heading out the door, leaving the rest of them to finally come down from the adrenaline rush after the fight. Stiles put a hand up to his neck, gently pressing on the warm bruises to see just how tender they were. Turned out, pretty tender. 

“Aw, Stiles…” Erica said, throwing him a sympathetic pout as she curled up next to Boyd, “Don’t worry, you’re big bad alphas will be back soon to dote over you. Good thing you’ve got both of them whipped.”

“This is great, he can’t even retaliate.” Ethan said, “So, Stiles, how long have you and Derek been together? Since the beginning or just a few months now?”

“We’re not together!” The pain that got him was well worth his own defense until Lydia was practically growling. She had clearly spent too much time with werewolves. Stiles put his hands up in front of him, universal sign for don’t hurt me.

“Leave him alone or he’ll hurt himself worse.” Lydia instructed, “You all know he can’t help defending himself, especially about Derek. You can taunt him when he’s well.”

Isaac came next to Stiles and set a hand on the back of his neck. Stiles felt the pain drain away after a couple seconds and he practically purred as he leaned into him. Isaac just rolled his eyes and flipped on the TV, landing on an episode of Parks and Rec.

“I’ve brought gifts to our injured compatriots!” Cora smiled as she walked into the room, two bowls of soup in her hands. She gave one to Boyd and another to Stiles before making herself comfortable on the couch with Stiles and Isaac. Lydia was still mulling over all the artifacts she’d found at the dining room table and Ethan had escaped off upstairs to shower.

Stiles hadn’t even realized he’d fallen asleep until there was someone leaning over him and shaking him awake, hands on his shoulders. He let out an unmanly and croaky yelp before he realized that it was Scott in front of him, Scott who rolled his eyes and then squinted a little, studying Stiles’ neck in the dark.

The lights were flipped on all of a sudden and Stiles groaned as his eyes snapped shut. Isaac who was next to him woke up then as well, and soon Cora, Erica, and Boyd were waking up along with them. “Ethan, Lydia! Come downstairs.” Derek called out.

Then Derek was stalking over to Stiles and pulling him to his feet, hands resting on his shoulders before they moved up to turn his head so he could see the full extent of damage on his neck. He looked furious but managed to keep it in check as the rest of the pack trailed in the front door, road weary and hungry.

“You good?” Derek asked, pulling the discomfort from Stiles as he spoke. Stiles nodded and gave Scott a smile from where he was standing worriedly next to Derek. “Can you talk at all?”

“Yes.”

“No.” Lydia said as she walked down the stairs, “Give him a little while to heal Derek, or it’ll be worse for longer. How’d your guys’ meeting go?”

“We’ll talk in a minute, everyone needs to get something to eat or drink, wake up a little before we talk.” Derek said, looking at the part of the pack that had been with him, “Boyd, are you alright?”

“I’m sore, and a little tired but I’ll be alright. I don’t remember anything though, before you ask. I just know we got separated in the woods and being tied up and then the next thing that I remember was Stiles cutting my ropes and then the witch going after him.” Boyd explained.

Ten minutes later the pack was all settled on the couches. Isaac was still next to Stiles on one side and Scott had taken up the other side, guiltily looking at his neck every time Stiles so much as shifted in his seat. Stiles just rolled his eyes at him and gave his shoulder a pat.

“Okay. Our treaty is set between us and the Stewardson pack about five hours north of here. They’re a pack of about ten werewolves, one emissary, and six humans. They’re a solid pack and rarely have troubles with other packs, they’re very friendly and they lay low. I’m hoping that the connection with their pack will foster some with others as well.” Derek said, “You’re turn. What happened?”

Stiles about spoke up but then Isaac was slapping a hand over his mouth and talking instead, “We were out in the woods, just doing a sweep and making sure everything was alright, so we were split up and just canvasing the area. When we got back to our meeting spot Boyd wasn’t there and Erica was freaking out because she couldn’t feel him through the mate bond at all and she thought that meant he was dead. So then we paired off and went looking for him. 

“Stiles and Erica got to him first and there was a mountain ash line surrounding him with something else mixed in. Stiles went in to see what was going on before breaking the line just in case it was somehow connected to Boyd being okay. Erica got the rest of us there. By the time we got in Stiles had already killed two of the witches and Boyd was coming out of whatever trance she was in. Stiles seemed to be being strangled but the third witch wasn’t touching him. So I got to her and Cora and Ethan went to Stiles. Erica helped Boyd down and Lydia started collecting all of the stuff she could get, she got a sample of the mountain ash mixture too. I had to kill her to get her to stop suffocating Stiles and that’s pretty much the whole of it.”

“And Erica, you could feel him as soon as the witches were dead?” Derek asked.

“Yes, it must’ve been a spell of some sort. It was overwhelming when the bond came back though, I almost collapsed myself.” Erica explained.

Scott was giving Derek a weird look, and Derek looked like he was thinking hard about something before he was nodding and abruptly standing up, “Okay, good job pack. That’s enough for tonight. We can go over what Lydia found tomorrow morning, everyone needs some rest.”

The pack started to disperse and just as Stiles was about to get up Scott was grabbing a hold of his arm to keep him sitting, Stiles gave him a questioning look and Derek just said, “Wait one minute.”

Once the rest of the pack was gone Derek was sitting on the other side of Stiles and Lydia was standing in front of them, tapping her fingers together with a smirk. “So, I guess you two figured it out as well then?”

Derek grunted as Scott nodded and Stiles just looked down at his lap, “It doesn’t mean anything. It was a fluke.”

“It was not a fluke and you know it Derek. You don’t have to be romantic mates to be mates, he’s got your back and you’ve got his and you’ve had a mutual dependency forever. Okay? It’s normal. You balance each other out and everyone in this pack can see it. Also, it’s pretty obvious.”

“What do you mean it’s obvious?” Derek snapped.

“You completely froze around the same time as when Stiles would’ve stepped into that circle.” Scott said, “And, as soon as the line must’ve been broken you were almost brought to your knees. It’s not a coincidence. Lydia’s right, a mate bond doesn’t have to be romantic but whatever you too have you need to acknowledge it. It could come in handy and it could also hurt both of you if you’re oblivious or refusing to admit it’s there.”

“Wow Scotty.” Stiles smirked, “Getting all wise.”

“Stop talking.” Derek said, “You’re hurting your throat.”

“Now that it’s out in the open, I’m going to bed.” Lydia informed them, “I haven’t seen Aiden in a week and I missed him so you two figure out whatever you need to figure out but until Stiles can talk again I doubt you’ll be able to do much. Scott, leave them to sit awkwardly if you have to.”

Then Lydia was heading up the stairs and Scott was giving Stiles’ shoulder one last squeeze before following her lead. Giving Derek a knowing look with his eyes flicking to Stiles. Derek gave a short nod before heaving a sign and turning to look at Stiles.

“Okay, let’s go to bed for now. You can sleep in my room.” Stiles raised an eyebrow at him and Derek rolled his eyes, “You’ve done it before, it’s not weird now just cause we’ve acknowledge whatever this is. Besides, I don’t want you to stop breathing or anything in the middle of the night. I know Deaton said you were okay but you never know with magic.”

Stiles shrugged in acceptance before standing up and stretching his limbs, a little cramped up due to his previous sleeping on the couch. Derek lead the way up to his room and pushed Stiles into the bathroom once they got there, “You need to shower. You still smell like death and magic.”

When Stiles was finally cleaned up and changed he rolled into bed exhausted next to Derek who was already a little asleep but he turned on his side and pulled enough of Stiles’ pain to allow him to sleep without his neck feeling like it was going to break. Stiles grunted in thanks before falling fast asleep himself.

He dreamed of the hug that Erica gave Boyd when she finally saw him again, the hug between mates who hadn’t felt each other for less than an hour. And he dreamed that someone felt that close to him, someone cared that much.


	10. Forgiveness (Aiden)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Aiden, think. Think about what you’re saying. We’re your pack. Lydia loves you. There’s nothing else to it. Okay? Get it together.”
> 
> Then Aiden lashed out, fist connecting with Stiles’ face and knocking him off his feet. It wasn’t pleasant but when Stiles looked up, it seemed like Aiden had snapped back into himself. He looked at his hand and then down at Stiles, and then dropped down next to him.

“You need to stop.” Stiles said, yanking on Aiden’s arm, “You’re drunk out of your mind and pissed off. This isn’t going to end well.”

“I’m fucking fine Stiles.”

“You’re clearly not.” Stiles said, “Just come with me. Come on.”

Aiden grumbled but ended up following Stiles, he crawled into the jeep’s passenger seat and then slammed his head back against the head rest in anger. He then proceeded to slam his hand against the door and Stiles could hear a crack before Aiden was lifting it in front of him and watching it heal. 

“What’s going on?”

“Lydia and I got into a fight. A real one. Not some stupid one like usual.” Aiden gritted out, “She’s pissed cause I didn’t call her that day that I ran off. The day that Ethan and I went into the woods for a weekend without telling any of you. She said that she cares more than I do.”

“Well is that true?”

“No, it’s not true! I’m not used to having a pack, Stiles. Especially a pack that isn’t constantly trying to outdo each other and Ethan and I aren’t used to not having to watch our back. It was overwhelming. So I dragged Ethan out for a weekend away to calm down. Okay?”

“Okay.” Then they were pulling into the schools parking lot and Stiles was pulling his lacrosse bag out of his backseat, “Come on.”

They ended up on the field and Stiles was throwing Aiden a stick and then grabbing a hold of his own. They started throwing it back and forth, Stiles hoping it’d get Aiden to stop thinking about the fight until he was sober enough to think straight. Turns out he just got more frustrated and he started throwing harder and harder, until it was almost knocking Stiles over.

“Aiden! Chill out!”

Aiden held back a growl as he started to shift. His frustration kept building until he was breaking the stick in half, causing Stiles to roll his eyes because those things weren’t cheap, and he was pounding one of the broken pieces into the ground.

Stiles took a step back, usually Aiden had better control, usually he knew how to get himself together. His phone started vibrating in his pocket and he pulled it out, putting it to his ear quickly. He kept an eye on where Aiden was pacing back and forth, gritting his teeth together.

“The alcohol was spiked.” Malia said over the phone.

“I realize that, that’d be why the wolves could get drunk.”

“No, it was spiked with something else. Something that makes them more aggressive, harder to control the shift. Aiden drank the most, Scott did too. Isaac flipped out on Erica and Derek had to come to get him to calm down, he had to use his alpha voice too, Isaac was hardcore out of it. Are you with Aiden?”

Stiles swallowed hard, Aiden was flipping his head toward Stiles and then back at the ground as his pacing started to bring him closer and closer to Stiles, “Yeah, he’s with me.”

“Are you okay? Can you handle him?”

“Yes. If anyone else comes I think it’ll piss him off more. How’s Isaac?”

“He’s alright, the rest of the pack stopped drinking a lot earlier so they’re all okay too, everyone is just keeping their distance from each other a little bit until it gets cooled down. Are you sure you can handle Aiden?”

“Yes, Malia. Just keep Derek on standby in case something happens. But I’m fine. We’re handling it. I’ve got to go.” Then Stiles was carelessly shoving his phone back into his pocket and focusing on Aiden who was standing in front of him, glaring.

“It’s because of you. It’s because you’re obsessed with Lydia.” His voice was rising, louder and louder, “You fucked it up for me! Because you needed her to love you, so you doted on her for so long and now she expects me to dote on her like that. She expects me to be just like that and I can’t do that. Because guess what Stilinski, I’ve had a harder life than you. I don’t trust like you do. Got it?”

Stiles flinched back at that. It’d been a while since any of them had referred to him by his last name, because it had always been more derogatory than anything, an insult. And no one every compared shitty life stories because they all had them, they all had things they wanted to forget and one upping someone on how bad their life was was strictly against what the pack was about. But Stiles knew that this wasn’t Aiden, this was the old Aiden, the Aiden that hated them and only cared about himself and maybe Ethan on a good day.

“Aiden, think. Think about what you’re saying. We’re your pack. Lydia loves you. There’s nothing else to it. Okay? Get it together.”

Then Aiden lashed out, fist connecting with Stiles’ face and knocking him off his feet. It wasn’t pleasant but when Stiles looked up, it seemed like Aiden had snapped back into himself. He looked at his hand and then down at Stiles, and then dropped down next to him.

“Shit, shit Stiles. I’m so sorry. Are you okay? I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry.” Aiden was pulling him into a sitting position, keeping a hold of his shoulders, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Stiles promised, grabbing his jaw and trying to stretch out the pain a little bit, “Shit, I forgot how hard werewolves punch, especially when they’re mad.”

Aiden looked wrecked. He looked guilty and sad and lovesick all at once, “I messed up with Lydia. I really do love her, you know? She’s my best friend, she’s everything. And, I can’t screw that up. I’ve screwed up with everyone else. Derek’s going to be so pissed at me.”

“I’ll handle Derek.” Stiles promised. “It’s okay. Lydia will forgive you. She was just worried. She only worries that much when she loves someone. She loves you too. You just have to talk to her.”

Aiden looked relieved, like it was unfathomable for him to be granted forgiveness. Then Stiles realized he probably hadn’t been in his last pack. The alpha pack didn’t forgive, they punished. That made any anger Stiles had left in him dissipate. 

“Thank you.” Aiden said, pulling Stiles to his feet, “I owe you a lacrosse stick. And a lot more but I’m over this moment of vulnerability.”

Stiles rolled his eyes but stretched his neck a little bit and cringed when it pulled at his barely-not dislocated jaw. Stiles had a feeling that if he went to the doctor they’d still want to wire it shut and he wasn’t for that, so he vowed to not go to the doctor.

“Derek is close.” Aiden said, nervousness kicking back up a notch. He looked at Stiles’ face and then looked towards the woods, as if he was debating running off and away from Derek before the alpha saw what he’d done.  
“It’ll be okay. Don’t worry.” Stiles assured.

Derek was running to them then, and stopping in front of Stiles, staring at the side of his face and then grabbing his chin and turning it even more, to get a better view of his face in the field’s lights. He flipped then, turning to look at Aiden with his eyes flashing red.

“You don’t hurt pack.” Derek growled, “No matter what…”

“Derek, it’s not his fault.” Stiles said, grabbing Derek’s arm. He seemed to calm down almost immediately but he just put an arm behind him, holding Stiles back as he kept his eyes trained on Aiden, “Derek! Turn around and look at me.”

Derek turned to him, his eyes shifting back to their normal color. “What?”

“You’re not helping. Aiden’s sorry. It was the alcohol. He was already stressed. It’s fine.” Stiles explained, “Let’s just head back.”

“You need a doctor.” Derek said, taking the bait and loosening up the rest of the way, the tenseness in his shoulders finally gone, “That’s not just a bruise.”

“It’s fine.” Stiles repeated, “I’m not getting my jaw wired shut.”

“I am sorry.” Aiden said, speaking up for the first time since Derek had gotten there. 

Derek growled at him a little bit, “Not the time Aiden, get the stuff back to Stiles’ car. Then go fix whatever it is you have to fix with Lydia so it doesn’t affect anything else. And you’re on late night surveillance from now on. Until Stiles’ face is healed.”

Stiles rolled his eyes but shrugged at Aiden, knowing there was nothing he could do to get Derek to lift that little part of the punishment. It was what he did, that was an alphas job. “Fine, no doctor but if it doesn’t get any better in a couple days you’re going.”

The three got back to Stiles’ car and Derek pushed him into the passenger seat, and Aiden into the back, “Dude, my car. I drive.”

“You could be concussed. I drive.” Derek argued.

That seemed fair enough. Aiden stayed silent in the backseat the whole time, wallowing in self-pity and guilt as they drove the familiar path to Lydia’s house. He seemed to be amping himself up to talk to her the whole way there and he almost chickened out when she came walking out to the car as they pulled up. The passenger side was on the curb, allowing Lydia to see Stiles first. She grabbed his chin, much like Derek had done, and then flipped her glare to Aiden.

“Did you do this?”

“It’s not his fault Lydia.” Stiles said, “Give him a break.”

“Shut up Stiles.” She snapped, yanking open the door and gesturing for Aiden to crawl out of the car. He did so and kept his head down as Lydia looked over him, “Are you alright?”

Aiden looked up, expecting Lydia to be looking at Stiles. When she was looking at him instead he seemed shocked and Stiles couldn’t help but smile a little bit because Lydia was really good for him, they were good together. It looked like Aiden was going to break down right then but he gave her a smile and nodded before wrapping his arms around her. He started mumbling something and Lydia ended up smiling as well.

Stiles looked to Derek and nodded before saying, “I think our work is done. Let’s go.”

“Thank you, Stiles.” Aiden said, “And sorry, again. Dinner’s on me next time we all go out.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

Then Derek was pulling the car away from the curb and Stiles watched Aiden walk with Lydia in the house before they rounded the block. Stiles sat back in his seat, a content smile on his face as Derek drove them through a McDonald’s drive thru. Stiles didn’t bother asking what they were doing there, figuring that Derek was just hungry from a stressful night. They pulled up to the second window and Derek handed a shake over to Stiles, “You need some sugar and you aren’t going to be chewing anything any time soon.”

Stiles took it gratefully, the cold of the shake helping to alleviate a little bit of the pain while Derek took the bag the girl handed out to him and started eating the fries out of the bottom, “Let’s go back to the house.”

“Thank you dear alpha. You’ve always been my favorite Hale.”

“I’ll tell Cora and Peter you said that. They’ll be insulted.”

“They’ll get over it. Especially considering you’re my mate. It’s kind of expected.” Stiles said. An awkward silence fell around them. They hadn’t really talked about the mate thing since the witch incident over a week ago. It had become a taboo topic for the whole pack actually, since it became so real and no one was for sure on what it meant it wasn’t a joke any longer and that scared both Derek and Stiles more than they even realized.

“I’ll do anything for you Stiles. You know that. I’ll do anything for this pack. You will too. Maybe that’s why we’re mates.”

“Yeah, maybe.”


	11. Witch's Revenge (Kira)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Don’t break the circle, little human.” The witch taunted, she had a knife to Kira’s throat and Stiles was thrown back to saving Boyd just over a month before. Kira’s leg was clearly broken, she was favoring the right one heavily and she was doing her best to not show the witch weakness. He looked down at the line and it was practically glowing, a yellowish orange glow radiating off of it, “You break it, you kill the Kitsune and me; you don’t break it, I kill the Kitsune. Get it?”

They were in the middle of a fight. The witches had friends, there was a coven of them apparently. The three had been off on a private sort of adventure, apparently to better their powers when they got to Beacon Hills. The pack was just an experiment to them. Now their coven was coming for revenge.

They were doing well. As well as could be expected that is. Ten experienced witches working together against any size of pack was a feat, especially against a young pack. They’d managed to get five subdued so far but the remaining five were remaining for a reason. They were strong and they were holding their own with ease it seemed.

Isaac and Lydia were out for the fight. Isaac had been hit with a spell that rendered him paralyzed. Lydia said it could be reversed, but not until they were somewhere safe with more time. That meant someone had to protect Isaac or get him back to the house which meant that Cora was grabbing a hold of him and dragging him out of the direct path of danger, staying with him a little bit away from the fight and trying to keep him from freaking out. Lydia, when looking over Isaac, had been hit with what would’ve been the equivalent of about ten punches to the torso. She was looking at a few cracked ribs if she were lucky, broken if they were being realistic. Cora helped her off too, keeping both her and Isaac safe.

Scott was looking worse for wear, taking the brunt of the hits as he tried to save everyone else. He had slowly healing scratches all the way up his back, something in the magic slowing the healing process significantly. Jackson was in the same boat, blood dripping down his face from a gouge right above his left eyebrow. They were still fighting though.

Derek had suddenly stopped, surveying the situation. He saw the twins and Peter fighting the witch farthest to his left. They looked to be an even match, dodging her spells left and right while trying to find a way to counterattack again.

Witch number two was facing off against Jackson, Allison, Malia, and Danny. The humans were, surprisingly, doing the best. Jackson was so busy worrying about Malia, who’d sustained a hit early in the fight, that he could hardly protect himself which is what got him the bleeding hit on his head. Allison and Danny knew how to fight, they’d learned how to take down an opponent without any supernatural strength which took the witches by surprise and let them get the upper hand. Derek had a feeling that fight would be over soon with them winning.

The third was the weakest one left and it seemed like Erica and Boyd had an easy handle on her, she was close to dropping, her magic draining quickly and her stamina dropping just as fast. The two wolves were doing their best to take her down without sustaining any injuries themselves.

The second to last group was a team of two witches working together. Stiles, Derek, Cora, Isaac, and Lydia had been on the two of them until Isaac and Lydia had been taken out. That left only Derek and Stiles fighting off two witches.

The last witch was being held off by Liam, Scott, and Kira. The youngest beta was doing his best, trying to follow Scott’s orders without becoming so distracted the witch could get to him. But, he couldn’t stop everything which left Scott to pick up the slack, jumping in front of Liam when the beta was thrown off balance. That meant Kira was the only one left to fight to her full potential.

Derek was brought back into when Stiles grunted in pain. He checked him real quick before Stiles nodded his head that he was fine, and then they were both focusing again, “Malia, help us.” Derek called out.

Malia was then whipping towards them, attacking one of the witches with all her might as Jackson took down the one that he’d been on. Then Jackson was moving over to help as well while Allison was running off to help Lydia and Danny was going to the twins to help overpower the witch.

Everyone seemed to be ahead. They seemed to be taking down their witch with ease. Derek, Stiles, Malia, and Jackson had finally got the two witches split up which weakened them significantly and allowed them to be taken down a lot easier.

Except the final group was struggling. Scott was down, Peter and Boyd pulling him back and out of the way and trying to find a way to stop all of the bleeding. Liam had just taken a blow to the back that knocked the wind out of him and him onto the ground. Malia went forward, helping him up and getting him out of the way as well.

And Kira yelped. The final witch was throwing ash into the air, it falling into a perfect circle around them. Stiles could’ve rolled his eyes, always with the mountain ash even though there were humans in the pack. The wolves all backed up with a growl; Derek, Erica, and the twins were locked outside of the circle. Danny and Stiles looked at each other and nodded, both moving towards the circle to break it when the witch threw her hand out toward them, Stiles ducked down in time but Danny fell to the ground like a ton of lead. Ethan was lunging toward him, pulling him away and slapping his face lightly to try and wake him up.

“He’s okay Ethan,” Erica assured, “Listen to his heart, it’s okay. He’s just knocked out.”

“Don’t break the circle, little human.” The witch taunted, she had a knife to Kira’s throat and Stiles was thrown back to saving Boyd just over a month before. Kira’s leg was clearly broken, she was favoring the right one heavily and she was doing her best to not show the witch weakness. He looked down at the line and it was practically glowing, a yellowish orange glow radiating off of it, “You break it, you kill the Kitsune and me; you don’t break it, I kill the Kitsune. Get it?”

Stiles saw Scott coming back towards them, Boyd holding him up as he looked painfully at Kira. Then he was looking at Stiles, practically begging him to do something since the rest of them were considered useless at this point. That left Stiles taking in a deep breath and pulling a solution out of his ass to save them again. Deaton had said something, something about the color that a barrier let off and how to understand what it was.

Yellow meant that magic was present, Stiles could’ve guessed that. Orange was more difficult. Orange meant that breaking the line would set off a spell that the witch had predetermined. Considering what she said, he assumed that it was a self-destructive one, one that’d kill anyone in the circle which would mean that the witch wanted Kira dead regardless of what Stiles did. If he stepped into it and the witch broke it in retaliation, all three of them would be dead. If he stepped in and the witch took an interest in him, he might be able to get Kira out of the circle. If he didn’t do anything at all, she’d slit Kira’s throat.

“Stiles…” Derek mumbled, “Don’t…”

But before he could finish his warning Stiles was stepping in, the witch smiled at him and tightened her trip on Kira’s hair. Kira was staying straight faced though, not giving anything away. She had her hands in tight fists at her sides and she was looking straight at Stiles.

  
Stiles looked over both of their shoulders, where Scott was still staring at him like he was the answer to every question in the world and that terrified Stiles to his core. If he failed, Scott would never think of him the same way again, if he lived at all. If Kira lived and Stiles didn’t, Scott wouldn’t know what to do. There was a lot riding on this.

Then Stiles nodded. Kira’s hands flew to the arm holding the knife, pulling it far enough away that she could drop to the ground. Then Stiles was pulling the now trusty knife out of his pocket and moving forward holding it in front of him and at the witches throat, Kira safely behind him and nursing her leg. Stiles saw the rest of the pack coming back toward them, Isaac and Lydia seeming better although Allison had almost all of Lydia’s weight resting on her. Liam looked a little disoriented but he was standing on his own.

“What now, human?” the witch asked. “We’re still in the circle, and the fact still remains that any breaking of the line will kill all of us. I still have magic, you still don’t. What’s your plan?”

“Kill the caster.” Stiles replied, “Disengage the spell.”

Then he was lunging for her again, pulling her forward as she toed at the line, attempting to break it before Stiles was dropping her to the ground. He could feel her magic pushing at him, attempting to get him off. His eyes were blurring and he realized she was trying to blind him, but she wasn’t trying to kill him.

He managed to knee her in the stomach, breaking her focus so he could still make out shapes at least. Then, he was shoving the knife straight into her heart. He was really sick of people underestimating his ability to kill for his pack, to take the hard path. After rolling her off of him, he kicked out and broke the solid yellow barrier. Scott was going to Kira, helping her up with more help from Boyd. Erica and Derek were going to Stiles, pulling him up and getting him steadied on his feet.

“Are you okay? What’d she do to you?” Erica asked.

“Eyes, I’m okay. It’ll wear off, it wasn’t a permanent spell and she’s dead, it’ll wear off. I just can’t see very well. I’m okay.” Stiles assured, “Let’s just get out of here.”

They were pairing off then, as usual. Aiden had lifted Lydia up, trying his best to keep her ribs from being agitated as he started off towards the cars. Ethan was smiling down at Danny who was finally waking up and, with the help of Peter, they were supporting him on either side and following Aiden. Cora was still stuck to Isaac’s side, he was gaining control of his legs but his movements were clumsy. Cora seemed to find it a little funny though and teased him as they moved along, at least it got Isaac smiling again. Scott was finally healing, the magic wearing off and his back knitting itself together. He was kneeling next to Kira who was trying her best to keep a brave face on for him.

“I’m okay Scott, I promise. It’s okay.” Kira said, “How’re you? Are you still bleeding?”

  
“I’m okay too. We’re fine.”

Boyd and Erica rolled their eyes simultaneously at the two of them, and the Erica was helping Kira while Boyd helped Scott. They took off together, Erica and Boyd laughing at something while Scott kept his eyes trained on Kira to make sure that she was actually okay and not just lying to him; funnily enough, she was doing the exact same thing.

Jackson had his heart eyes on for Malia and was telling her how great she did over and over again, even though she was fully aware. That seemed to make Jackson even happier, which confused Malia but she rolled with it and the two were moving along.

Allison had taken to mother-henning Liam. It seemed to be her favorite new past time and he seemed to like it. His mom, while good, hadn’t ever been one to nurture and hug. Allison, on the other hand, absolutely loved to dote over the youngster. She was running a hand over the back of his head every couple of seconds, to make sure there wasn’t any real damage.

Then it was Derek and Stiles. Stiles was scrubbing at his eyes over and over again, even though he was well aware that it wasn’t going to make the spell wear off any quicker. Derek grabbed a hold of his wrists then, and started pulling him after the pack, “Come on, you can sleep off the rest of the spell once we’re back at the house.”

Stiles nodded and grabbed a hold of Derek’s bicep with one hand, nudging him forward. They both knew it probably wouldn’t work out for very long, and Stiles would inevitably end up tripping but Derek took off anyway. Less than half way to the cars, Stiles was stopping and grunting in frustration that his legs were probably far worse off than he should’ve let them become thanks to the thousand times he’d rammed them into various branches and trees.

“I’ve got you.” Derek said, pulling Stiles up onto his back.

“Piggy back ride?” Stiles asked, “Not exactly what I’d peg you for but good to know.”

“I wish she’d made you stop talking instead of stop seeing.” Derek complained.

“Doubtful. You’ve dealt with me not talking before. It made you nervous. I know that. I’m not stupid.” Stiles said, he tapped Derek’s chest with his hands that were wrapped around his neck.

“You’re annoying though.”

They fell into a silence, until they were most of the way back to the cars, probably only another minute or so from them and Stiles spoke up again, “I’m nothing without my eyes. I wouldn’t be of any use without them. If they don’t heal…”

“They’re going to heal. Just like everyone else’s injuries. And you are something without your eyes. You’re still you. You’re still pack, and you still matter to all of us. Don’t say stupid things.”

“Derek, I would be a liability. You know that. This pack can’t afford a liability.”

Derek stopped then too, just far enough from the cars that anyone left waiting for a ride from Stiles still wouldn’t be able to hear him. He set Stiles on the ground and turned to face him, grabbing a hold of his shoulders. Stiles could tell that he was making eye contact but everything was still one colorful blur, so he just let his eyes wander to where he assumed Derek’s were centered.

“Stiles, you’ll never be a liability. You’re my anchor. You’re the packs lifeline. They call you. They call you when they need to talk or when they need saving, that’s not because you’re the best fighter, it’s because you care the most. I can’t lose you, and neither can any of the rest of them. This self-doubting shit has got to end. Okay?”

Derek was waiting for an answer, Stiles realized, he wasn’t just going to let it go. “Okay.”

“That was a lie.” Derek sounded defeated. He sounded like he was disappointed. “Even if you don’t believe it, it’s true. I’ll prove it to you somehow but for now you need rest. And the pack needs to be together. That includes you.”

“Then to the pack we go!” Stiles said with fake joy.

“The smell of shame and self-depreciation radiating off of you is going to worry them.” Derek said. He sighed again, Stiles was getting sick of that. Derek sighing was never a good sign. Then the blob of color was moving closer to him and Stiles felt arms wrapping around him, he returned the hug and felt Derek’s arms tighten for a minute before he was letting go again, “Trust me Stiles, blind or not, this pack needs you. Come on, they’re getting worried waiting for us.”

Stiles reached back around Derek’s neck and was hefted onto his back. Stiles let himself bask in the warmth of Derek actually showing physical affection for the rest of the walk. Then he realized that the hug that he’d just gotten was very similar to the one he’d dreamed about. The one that Erica and Boyd had shared when Erica was worried she’d lost him.


	12. Connecting the Dots (Lydia)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles rotated the ring that was in his own pocket. It was his mother’s wedding ring. He hadn’t started carrying it around until recently but Deaton had said it might help him control his spark power if he had something that meant a lot always on hand. 
> 
> Lydia eyed his pocket and he sighed and pulled it out, showing it to her, “It was my mom’s.”
> 
> She gave him a sad smile and then nodded a little bit, “Okay. That’s it then. That is the key. If they had something of Derek’s I bet you would’ve felt it.”
> 
> “That’s like the portal then. Whoever’s object is in the circle, their mate loses the ability to feel them and know if they’re okay or not.”

Lydia was pacing back and forth in her bedroom, pausing every few seconds to look up at the posters lining her walls. They were covered in random tidbits, facts from here and there, thoughts that had popped up as she was studying what the witches had left. 

The others seemed to have thought it was over as soon as they’d taken down the rest of the witches clan but Lydia wasn’t so sure. Each coven had alliances, just like how werewolf packs did, and the particular coven that had attacked them was no exception. They had at least two covens who would have their backs no matter what, and a pack of werewolves that seemed to be at their beck and call. That didn’t worry Lydia as much as the fact that whatever they were doing was so complex and multi-leveled that she was sure it was a long term plan. And witches weren’t stupid, if they had a plan they told their alliances so their alliances could fulfill it if the coven was taken down.

But, she couldn’t figure out just what it was. She couldn’t figure out the long term plan or what it is that they wanted to do with her pack. From what she’d gathered, they were most interested in the pack connection. They wanted to be able to control it, possibly even hack into it for lack of better phrasing.

Lydia liked to talk things through with people, so she called Stiles cause Stiles loved to be a part of these sort of investigations and he wasn’t lacking in the intelligence factor that helped her sort through her own theories. Stiles got there just twenty minutes later and handed Lydia her favorite coffee as he was sipping at his own.

“Thought you might need some caffeine.”

She smiled at him absently and continued to tap her pen against her lip, she felt like she was just a half of a thought away from figuring out another part of the puzzle. She groaned in frustration when it didn’t come to her and flopped back down on her bed, carefully setting the coffee on her table beforehand.

“I just can’t figure it out! They want to mess with the bonds between pack mates, and they managed to get between mate bonds which must be so much more intricate. I can’t figure out why they haven’t been able to get between the pack mates.”

“Well, mate bonds are a lot more intricate but they’re also a lot more obvious. I mean, it takes so long for a pack bond to grow and become strong enough to really feel, especially for humans. Mates, on the other hand, seem to know right away and it’s as strong as it’ll ever be in the beginning.”

“That’s not always true.” Lydia said. “Take you and Derek for example, and don’t interrupt me trying to deny it, we’re past that. You guys didn’t know right off that it was a mate bond. You had something, obviously, but you never really acknowledged it. Now that you are both aware and working with it it’s getting stronger. I think mate bonds become more obvious as the two parties start to realize it. Erica and Boyd have had the bond since they were just turned and they’ve started to become almost dependent on it in some cases. I think that’s why she picked them to test it on. It was more than just convenience.”

“Okay, so if that’s true then maybe the mate bond is easier to fiddle with because it’s so important. Pack bonds can be restored. Scott and Derek are proof enough of that. But, mate bonds are for life and once they’re severed it’s impossible for another mate to be found.”

“Not everyone has them though.” Lydia continues, “Which is lucky for a lot of us. The only two in the pack are you and Derek and Erica and Boyd. I think that if another coven is going to advance on this one’s research they’re going to be hunting for four of you.”

“At least until they can understand simple pack bonds.” 

Lydia nodded in confirmation and started sipping on her coffee, standing up and looking over everything else she’d written down. “I think they want to see if they can control a pack through the bond.”

“How is their werewolf pack alliance holding up if this is the kind of stuff they’re messing with?”

“I’m assuming they don’t know.” Lydia said, “Because this is highly offensive and against any sort of unspoken code that the supernatural community lives off of.”

“Or they’re in on it with them.” Stiles said. He groans a little bit, rubbing at his head. “If they figure it out and that werewolf pack gets in, they can take over other packs. Think about it; if one pack can get inside another packs structure and bonds then they can essentially become that pack’s alpha.”

“And create a super pack of sorts.” Lydia says. “Shit, this got a lot worse than I was expecting.”

“Have you figured out how they numbed the bond? I guess that’s how you could say it.”

“No. Well, kind of. There was obviously a spell on Boyd but that was just what put him in whatever kind of trance he was in. The other aspect of the spell was in the mountain ash line. You weren’t affected because the mountain ash must activate it or be some part of it. Mountain ash doesn’t affect you. But, it did do enough to make Derek feel it. If only they’d left Boyd awake, then we could see if he would’ve felt it from in the circle.”

“So you’re saying it could be a one sided thing? If Boyd had been conscious he may have still been able to feel Erica even though she couldn’t feel him?”

“Essentially, yes. Could you feel Derek at all?”

“Not really. I mean, we hadn’t acknowledged it though… like you said.”

“But Derek felt it. So either Derek knew that you two had the bond a lot earlier than you did, and he’d accepted it a lot before you, or we’d be right with our theory that it’s a one way thing.”

Stiles thought back to that time, to see if he could remember feeling any different. In all honestly, he couldn’t. “I should’ve paid more attention.”

“You didn’t think to. It’s fine.” Lydia assures him, “We should get the other three over here. Go over the stories again to see if there’s anything we brushed over.”

“We’ll do that in a little bit. Let’s look at the rest of the stuff they left behind. Where’s it all at?” Stiles followed Lydia over to her desk and she gestured to all the artifacts spread out on top of sheets of paper. She’d labeled each thing with any and everything she knew about it.

Except one ring in the far top corner.

“All of this other stuff is old and has some sort of meaning connected back to what we know as Northwestern witches roots.”

“That’s because it’s not the witches'. That’s Boyd’s. That’s a ring that has been in his family for a long time. He told me about it one pack night when we were talking about things that really mattered to us. I was talking about the Jeep and he dropped that pretty passively. But I could tell it meant a lot. He said something about his Grandpa wearing it and keeping it with him and then his Grandma wore it around her neck once his Grandpa passed away.”

“What else did you have on you?” Lydia asked, frantically writing things down on the paper and then on another poster in the room. “That might be the key. That’s what allowed the witches to reach the mate bond. You had to have something that matters.”

Stiles rotated the ring that was in his own pocket. It was his mother’s wedding ring. He hadn’t started carrying it around until recently but Deaton had said it might help him control his spark power if he had something that meant a lot always on hand. 

Lydia eyed his pocket and he sighed and pulled it out, showing it to her, “It was my mom’s.”

She gave him a sad smile and then nodded a little bit, “Okay. That’s it then. That is the key. If they had something of Derek’s I bet you would’ve felt it.”

“That’s like the portal then. Whoever’s object is in the circle, their mate loses the ability to feel them and know if they’re okay or not.”

“Looks like we have something to tell the pack then.” Lydia says, “Should we do it here or at Derek’s?”

“Derek’s. Because do you really want an entire werewolf pack scavenging your kitchen on a Friday after school?” Stiles pointed out.

“You make a good point. Looks like we’re on food duty too then. Our choice; what’re you hungry for?”

“Pizza sounds good.” Stiles decides. Lydia nods absently, her focus on her phone where she was sending out a group message to the pack. Stiles felt his phone vibrate right after she sent send. “Let’s go then.”

They made it to the house after about a half hour to see that they were the last to arrive. Derek was sitting talking to Danny in hushed tones on one end of the dining room table. Stiles had a feeling there’d be another werewolf in the pack before the next full moon. But, once they got into the living room, pizza’s in hand, everyone was descending towards them and then making themselves comfortable on the couches and floor.

“We’ve got a little something figured out.” Stiles said, “We know how they are ‘hacking’ into the bond per say. We also have some theories as to why but I’ll let Lydia explain.”

“Right, okay. We believe that they are trying to find a way to invest themselves into the bond and then control the wolves in a pack using that bond. That mate bond is easier for them to use because it is a direct link between two people and that’s simpler to manage. It is also easier to manipulate because it is such a strong bond. Boyd’s ring was in the circle with him and that is what seemed to be the key to the whole procedure.” Lydia tossed Boyd’s ring back to him and he nodded to her in thanks as he slipped it back onto his finger, “They have to have something of great importance to the person that they’re trying to block. In this case they were trying to block Erica’s ability to feel Boyd. We don’t know if he would’ve been able to feel her if he hadn’t been unconscious but we think that they probably would’ve needed something of Erica’s. Stiles also had something on him that was person which is why Derek felt, or rather didn’t feel, the effects of it as well.”

“Do you think it’s over then?” Peter asked.

“No. This particular coven has an alliance with two other covens and a werewolf pack. We assume the pack is centered in far the northwestern regions of the country, probably Washington. They either don’t know about what the coven was trying to do or they are involved heavily in it. If they are aware and involved then we have a feeling that they want to infiltrate the pack and control them using the bond and somehow altering it in order to make it more of an alpha/beta bond.” Stiles continued. 

“Then this could be really bad.” Malia said.

“We don’t think they have much to go off of though. Boyd and Erica were their first real test and they only managed to numb the bond, not control either of them and they had to have Boyd subdued and in the circle in order to do it. They have a long way to go before they can actually control more than one member of the pack.” Lydia explained.

“That’s a relief.” Allison said, “I can talk to my dad, see if he has any connections up there.”

“Good.” Derek said, nodding, “Now do we know why they are targeting us?”

“I have a feeling that it’s because there’s two alphas and we’ve got such a wide variety within the pack.” Stiles said, “And we’ve got two mate pairs, both very different even from each other.”

“So, Erica, Boyd, Stiles, and Derek are at the most risk if either of the covens or the pack comes down as of right now. But I think we’re safe for a little while. They need to regroup and they’ll have to interpret the workings of the other coven.” Lydia informed them.

“That’s all we’ve got.” Stiles finished, clapping his hands together and then gesturing to the pizza, “Dive in.”

Less than a week later, all the pack still on high alert, Lydia was caught up in a witch’s grasp. And, against all odds, it was a witch not at all associated with the previous coven. In fact, she didn’t have a coven at all. Lydia had been back at the circle, searching for anything she may have missed when the witch showed up. She had seen the left over magic and wanted to check it out only to find Lydia already there and apparently disrespecting a late witch’s final spell. This witch seemed to take great offense to that.

So there was Lydia, suspended in midair and paralyzed. If she could talk she would’ve likened it to when Katie Bell had touched the necklace in Harry Potter. The witch was chanting something beneath her, walking in circles and occasionally stopping in one spot for a couple seconds before glancing at Lydia and continuing. 

Stiles had been meeting her there. He was going to bring some things that Deaton had given him, they were supposed to help him trace the magic and how it worked. Lydia just hoped that whatever spell this witch was trying to complete took long enough to give Stiles time to show up. 

When Stiles finally fumbled his way out of his Jeep, backpack almost spilling over with supplies, it was ten minutes after he was supposed to meet Lydia. He really didn’t want her to end up pissed at him because he showed up late, she could be vicious.

When he finally got there, he crouched back behind a tree as quietly as he could. There was Lydia, in all her well-dressed glory, ten feet above the forest floor and not moving a centimeter. Then there was a witch who was in the trance of attempting a spell, walking in circles and tracing something into the ground with her footsteps. Stiles sent a frantic text to the pack, telling them where he was and a short explanation before he was pulling his backpack open and sifting through it as quietly as he could to see if there was anything useful.

Stiles wasn’t a genius on witchcraft but he did know when a spell was coming to an end. It usually happened with the witch’s voice got higher and louder, as if the anticipation had been building throughout the rest of what she said. He glanced up at Lydia again, really looked to see if there was something physically wrong, and all he could tell was that she was looking a little paler than usual. Being immobile and vulnerable tended to do that to a person.

Then he found what he was looking for. Deaton had finally given him something usefully offensive and he pointed the tiny dart gun at the witch. He only had one shot before she knew he was there, he was aware of that. But he was also aware that if he killed the witch and couldn’t get to Lydia fast enough she could easily break her neck.

So, he aimed for the back of her shoulder and squeezed the trigger. She turned when it hit her and reached to pull it out, looking at it for a second before locking eyes with Stiles. Her look turned into a glare and then she was dropping.

“Lydia!” Stiles yelled, going over to where she was still in the air, “Hold on. Okay? I’ll… I’ll figure it out. I’m sorry. Just hang on for a couple more minutes.”

Stiles dropped next to the witch and grabbed her hands, looking to see if she was holding anything. Her hands were empty and she was still completely unconscious. He ran a hand through his hair in frustration before standing up and looking at the markings she’d managed to drag into the ground with her foot. Those must’ve been it. 

He went around quickly, disturbing the lines and symbols as he went. Lydia was flailing a little bit then, “Stiles, shit… help me down!”

“Working on it Lyds! Tell me if it feels like you’re going to fall, okay?”

“Yeah, got it.”

He pushed a little more dirt around and then Lydia was calling for him. He flipped to her quickly and then reached his arms out just in time to break her fall. Both still ended up in the dirt but her neck was safe and she seemed to be gaining control of her limbs again.

“Stiles! Lydia!” Scott’s voice rang through the trees as him and the pack came tumbling forward, Aiden running to where Lydia was still semi holding onto Stiles and running his hands up and down her arms before grabbing a hold of face and full on kissing her.

“Gross.” Stiles mumbled, standing up and looking at his arms which he knew would feel the brunt of the impact tomorrow.

Derek was next to him, looking him over and then turning to look at the witch on the ground with a raised eyebrow. 

“She… I don’t even know.” Stiles admitted.

Scott was leaning down next to the witch, wrapping her wrists with a small rope and then hefting her up in a fireman’s hold. “Might as well see what she knows.”

“Where’s the rest of the pack?” Lydia asked, allowing Aiden to pull her up with him. Only Ethan, Kira, and Isaac were there with the other three.

“Figured we could handle one witch.” Isaac smirked, “Looks like Stiles already had. Again.”

Stiles smiled and gave a small bow, “You are welcome, dear pack.”

“Thank you, Stiles.” Lydia said, “Thanks for not letting her break my neck or whatever she was going to do.”

“My pleasure.”

“You need to put some ice on your arms.” Derek instructed, “But it doesn’t look like they’re broken.”

“That’s what I was going to guess.” Stiles said, “Let’s go. I can say, probably for the entire pack, that I am so sick of witches.”

“I second that.” Scott grunted, adjusting the witch’s weight on his shoulder, “Now let’s get going. Who knows how long this is going to last.”

“Two hours.” Stiles said, “Gave her too big of a dose probably but I didn’t really have time to measure it out.”

“You did well.” Derek says, nodding at him. “As usual.”


	13. Control (Danny)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny was sitting at the kitchen counter, hands clasped over his ears with claws out and his eyes were squeezed shut. Stiles walked around in front of him, across the counter to give some safe space. He patted Danny on the arm, dodging back a little bit when Danny lashed out slightly in fear and then looked guiltily at Stiles as he put his hands down in front of him.

Stiles had been correct in his assumption about Danny. Two meetings after they had the rundown on the witches intentions, he was a newly turned werewolf. He seemed to have a solid grip on it too, he had good control and had only unintentionally wolfed out a few times since he’d been bitten.

Stiles was worried he was bottling it all up though. He knew that Danny had set exceptionally high expectations for himself, Danny had thought that being prepared would make it almost infinitely easier, and while it didn’t do any harm Stiles figured that it could only do so much to know what was going to happen. It was still a whole new thing.

That was why when the full moon was getting closer and Danny called him in the middle of the night, he wasn’t surprised. Danny was a good person, and a great asset to the pack. But, he was still himself. He was putting so much pressure on himself that Stiles was positive that it was building up and he wasn’t about to admit it to Ethan or any of the other werewolves for that matter, he didn’t want them to think he wasn’t as good as they were expecting. 

“I just, I need a little help.” Danny said over the phone, sounding a little defeated and a lot exhausted.

“Of course. Where’re you at?”

“My house. My family is on vacation. I just… Everything is so loud and bright…”

“I know, I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. Ten if there isn’t traffic. Just hang tight.” Stiles said. He jumped into his ever trusty Jeep and made his way out to Danny’s house. His clock read 2:17 in the morning and he had another wonderful feeling that this was going to be his second sleepless night in a row. Granted, he definitely should’ve gone to bed last night but he’d gotten so caught up in searching the symbol he’d finally redrawn from what he could remember the witch drawing underneath Lydia.

He pulled into Danny’s driveway and took a deep breath before climbing out of his car and heading straight inside, forgoing the usual norm of knocking on the door. He figured that they were past that at this point in their friendship. 

Danny was sitting at the kitchen counter, hands clasped over his ears with claws out and his eyes were squeezed shut. Stiles walked around in front of him, across the counter to give some safe space. He patted Danny on the arm, dodging back a little bit when Danny lashed out slightly in fear and then looked guiltily at Stiles as he put his hands down in front of him.

“Sorry. I just, you startled me. You alright?”

“I’m good. The senses really getting to you tonight?”

“Yeah, it’s just. I just haven’t been alone since I’ve been bitten so tonight I was hearing all of the sounds that I usually don’t hear. It’s like when you hear a noise at night that during the day doesn’t scare you but at night you’re almost positive someone is in your house.”

“I know what you mean. Want to watch a movie or something? Get some noise in the house and let you calm down a little?”

“Are you sure you don’t need to chain me up?” Danny asked, looking very serious and it made Stiles laugh a little bit.

“I’m sure bro. Trust me. You’re handling this way better than anyone else has so far. Also, I don’t think I have to go back to that form of controlling werewolves, I’ve learned something since Scott was bitten and I’d like to think my tactics are a little less medieval now. So, movie?”

“That’d be great.” Danny said, sighing in relief. “Let me just get us some food. You want something to drink?”

“Caffeine. Just straight up caffeine.”

Danny looked him over then and then cringed a little bit, “Dude, I’m sorry. I’m shouldn’t have woken you up in the middle of the night. You look like you really need some sleep.”

“You didn’t wake me up.”

“So you really, really need some sleep.” Danny concluded. “You can sleep, I’ll turn on the TV and watch the movie. You just being here kind of helps. You know. A part of the pack.”

“Why didn’t you call Ethan?”

“He just seemed so proud that I hadn’t needed any help. You know? And I would’ve felt so stupid having to call him cause he has like the best control aside from Boyd. Everyone thought I was going to be able to handle it so easily and I don’t want to be a burden on the pack if I can’t.”

“Danny, seriously? Every single one of them has wolfed out over something stupid. I’ve seen Boyd wolf out when Isaac was cuddling up with Erica too long when he first realized they were mates. Isaac wasn’t even aware of it until Boyd started growling. Ethan wolfed out when you didn’t answer your phone twice in a row. You called him back two minutes later but he freaked out so much that Aiden had to punch him in the face to calm him down.”

“Thank you Stiles.”

Stiles just nodded and sat on the couch next to Danny who’d brought over an entire pack of Oreos. Stiles ate a few as Danny set up the movie and then they both settled in. It only took a few minutes for Stiles to fall asleep, leaning over uncomfortably on the armrest with his phone still in his hand.

“Hey, Ethan” Danny said quietly, phone to his ear.

“What’s up Danny? It’s almost three in the morning. Are you okay? Did something happen?”

“I’m fine.” Danny said with a little laugh, “Promise. I just was freaking out a little bit…”

“Do you need me to come over?” Ethan asked, sounding like he was already getting up.

“No, it’s okay. Stiles is here.”

“Why didn’t you call me? I would’ve been there for you. You know that!”

“I know I know, it was just, I didn’t want you to think I wasn’t doing well with this whole thing. It’s alright. I’m fine. I’ll see you tomorrow at the pack meeting.”

“Sounds good. As long as you’re okay. And by the way, you’re a great werewolf. You’re doing great, no one is perfect at control at the beginning and the senses are overwhelming. I’m so proud of you.”

The next day Stiles woke up with a painful crick in the neck and a little bit of drool leaking out onto his shoulder but it looked Danny had been nice enough to drape a blanket over him. He also heard putzing around in the kitchen and when he got in there Danny had also cooked up a nice big breakfast for them.

“Oh, I love you. Thank you so much.”

“Least I could do.” Danny smirked, handing him a plate of eggs, bacon, and toast. Pancakes following on their own plate and drenched in syrup, “So… I know you don’t really talk about it but what ever happened or is happening with you and Derek?”

Stiles shrugged as he shoved half a piece of toast into his mouth at once, “I don’t know… we’re kind of just taking it day by day. We’ve accepted that we’re mates and we know that we care a ton about each other but we’re just figuring out how we want to handle it.”

“Do you love him?” 

“I do. But I don’t know if I’m in love with him. At least not yet. We’re still in the trial period basically. I am starting to feel it more though. The bond. It used to just be a little different than a pack bond but now it’s very obviously something more.”

Danny just kind of smiled at him, reaching over and patting him on the shoulder. “Let’s get going. I don’t know whose bright idea it was but pack meeting is at nine.”

“It was my idea, jackass.”

Once they pulled in Scott, Allison, Erica, Boyd, and Lydia were already there, along with the Hales of course. Derek checked in quick with Danny, making sure everything was okay and asking him what all the anxiety was about the night before.

Danny gave them all a quick, passive explanation with another thank you shot at Stiles as all of the rest of the pack filtered in. Derek had managed to make his way right next to Stiles, keeping his body right up next to Stiles as they all found spots around the dining room table. “What’s with all the touching?”

“You smell like Danny. And as much as I like all the pack smelling like each other, you’re still my mate and that means you’re supposed to smell like me.” Derek said, “Besides, watch Ethan as soon as he gets a whiff of Danny. He’ll be all over him. Worse than what I’m doing.”

Derek was proven right when Ethan dropped down next to Danny and immediately stuffed his face into the side of Danny’s neck and squeezing his hand on the back of Danny’s neck at the same time. Stiles tried to stifle a laugh, clearly pretty poorly because both Danny and Ethan gave him a glare, and then he was pulling his phone out and clearing his throat.

“Okay guys. I think I’ve figured out what that witch wanted with Lydia.” They all turned their attention to him then, Lydia especially interested and a little angry Stiles hadn’t told her first, “We thought she wasn’t at all connected with the covens because they aren’t technically ‘recruiting’ and she’s a lone witch but it turns out that witches kind of have the same feelings of loneliness as werewolves or packs. Theirs isn’t nearly as severe but they do feel a sort of disconnection when they’re on their own and that’s magnified when they’re losing power. From what that witch told us, she was losing her abilities because she didn’t practice all that often since it wasn’t safe to do a lot of spells alone. It turns out one of the covens had found her wandering up north somewhere and told her that if she completed this spell then they’d take her in. It was a bold faced lie but she was pretty desperate.”

“What does that have to do with what the spell was?” Cora asked.

“I’m getting there, a little backstory was needed. It turns out that the symbol she was making underneath Lydia is meant to, in short, show the bonds that the person has within the supernatural world. Each part of the larger symbol is connected to a species. They know what we have in the pack so they had one mark for a Kitsune, three for humans, and so on. The line that would’ve gone from Lydia to each mark would show what kind of bond she had with them and the strength of it. Luckily, they wouldn’t have been able to manipulate the bonds using what she had done, it was purely informational.” Stiles was drawing each symbol on a blank sheet of paper as he spoke and pointed to them as he discussed them.

“They know the bonds though. We only have pack and mate bonds. What else could they have wanted to know?” Jackson asked, his hand sliding behind Malia as he spoke in what was probably a subconsciously protective manner.

“That’s the thing. Deaton and I were looking into it and apparently those aren’t the only sort of bonds. They’re the basics but they each have subcategories kind of. For example, Derek’s bond to Cora is going to be different than his bond to Danny even though they’re both technically his beta’s. Same goes for a bond that Scott would have with me compared to a bond he’d have with Lydia. They’re not blatantly different but they’re different enough that it’d have to be accounted for in controlling a pack.”

“That sounds a lot more complicated than we were expecting.” Allison said, brushing her hair off her face, “And a lot more complicated than they were accounting for.”

“You’re right. And I think that we’re in luck thanks to that. It’s not a commonly known fact and digging into it isn’t easy. I doubt the witches knew that and I think that it may either slow them down or make them sloppy. I would say give up but I’m really doubting that, they seem persistent.” 

Then Stiles was sitting down and giving the floor to whoever else wanted to talk. Turns out that was all the pack business really to go over so the pack dispersed and went about their day. Aiden and Lydia were going on their weekly date in town, Allison was target practicing with Liam as her target (apparently so he could practice dodging arrows as well), Peter had a date with someone that none of them knew or really wanted to ask about, Kira was learning to get control of her foxfire with Scott standing next to her with the necessary precautions should something go wrong, Isaac and Cora were unashamedly flirting in the kitchen, Jackson and Malia had snuggled up on one of the couches in the honeymoon stage of their newly announced relationship, Ethan and Danny had gone off to talk about control, Erica and Boyd went back to bed. Stiles wanted to follow them.

Usually, Stiles would go into one of the guest rooms to make himself at home but once he hit the landing of the second floor Derek was right up behind him. He pushed him towards Derek’s room and then in onto his bed. It wasn’t necessarily abnormal but Stiles wasn’t used to Derek being so obviously about it.

Once he was lying on the bed, Derek crawled in next to him and they both stayed on their backs facing the ceiling. Stiles was waiting for what Derek clearly wanted to talk about but he was getting a little impatient and about to fall asleep. His eyes were just about to fall closed when Derek grabbed a hold of his wrist.

“What’s up Derek? Spit it out before I pass out.”

Derek did his little grunt of annoyance before saying, “Well, thanks for figuring out what the witch wanted. Chris has still got some contacts calling in about what they know of the covens.”

“What else?”

“What do you mean?”

“You would’ve said that in front of the rest of the pack. Why did you come up here even though you clearly don’t want to go to sleep.”

“When Danny was saying that he didn’t want to be a burden it brought me back to when you thought you were going to be blind.” Derek explained, “I mean, you were both wrong and in a weird state of mind but I think we still need to talk about it. Because you obviously think it.”

“Derek, please, not now…”

“No, now. Because we don’t know what else is going to happen and I don’t want you thinking that the next time you’re in a compromised position. You have to know that you’re important. And, we have to talk about what you want if you get really hurt.”

“You mean if I want the bite.”

“Yes. That’s what I mean.” A silence fell over them again. They rarely talked about if Stiles wanted to become a werewolf purely because he wasn’t sure what he wanted. He knew he didn’t want it now but he didn’t want to shut it down completely. As far as a lifesaving bite, it seemed like a no brainer. But, the torture a few months ago had taken a toll on him, and what they said was still stuck on him. “You’re thinking about them saying you wouldn’t be a good beta.”

Stiles’ head flipped to face Derek who was already staring at him. There was no use lying. Usually he didn’t bother unless he was really trying to keep a secret and at this point Derek would see right through him, “Yeah. Yeah I am.”

“Stiles. They’re wrong. You know that. I’ve told you that. You’d make a great werewolf and a great asset to the pack but you already are incredibly important to us now. You should know that. You’ve saved all of us and you’ve gone through more than someone should ever have to go through. Please, just trust me when I say that.”

“I do. I trust that you think I would be a good werewolf. I just don’t know if that’s an objective opinion or not. Danny is one of the most even tempered people I know and he still struggles. And he has an anchor already.”

Derek furrowed his eyebrows at that, studying Stiles and then saying, “And you don’t think you have an anchor? Stiles, you’re my mate. That makes me an anchor whether that’s the one you use or not. Not to mention that you have so many other anchors already. Your dad, for one, the pack in general. You’ll always have an anchor. And we’ll help you with control. Liam had horrible control as a human and he’s managed alright. We get through it.”

Stiles smiled a little and moved his arm up enough that Derek’s hand on his wrist slipped into Stiles’ hand instead. He gave it a little squeeze and then moved his head forward just enough to rest it momentarily on Derek’s shoulder, “Thank you.”

“Anytime. Get some rest now. You’re exhausted.”

“And you’re worried about that.”

“I’m worried you’re stretching yourself to thin for the sake of the rest of us. That’s not what we want or expect. We… I… want you healthy and happy and I think you’re stressing yourself out too much right now dealing with the witches. So yeah, sleep. I could use a nap too.”

Stiles hid his smile that time, keeping a grip on Derek with one hand and using the other to pat him on the chest, “You’re important too.”

Derek didn’t say anything, but Stiles saw his mouth twitch up in a smile and his hand tightened for a split second before he closed his eyes and nudged Stiles into doing the same.


	14. Surprise Attack (Cora)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I can’t lose her.” Isaac said as they were walking through the woods, “She’s the only one who really trusted me right off the back.”
> 
> “She’s my only sister left. Besides Peter, she’s the only part of my family I have.”
> 
> Stiles stayed silent, knowing this wasn’t really a conversation that he needed to be a part of. Aside from Derek being the one to really get Isaac out of his previous living situation, the main reason they were so close is because of how much Cora cared for both of them. She was the one that motivated them to work through their fights and had helped Isaac learn to trust each member of the pack as they were brought in. 
> 
> “We’ll find her.” Isaac said, “We have to.”

“Cora’s missing.” Derek stated, voice lined with tension and body ramrod straight where he stood in front of the pack. They were rounded up by the preserve, a bit away from the house. 

“If it’s fucking witches again I swear to God I’ll kill all of them.” Jackson said.

“Hold on, how do we know she’s not just avoiding all of us?” Allison asked.

“She doesn’t do that. She knows how important it is that even if she wants space to make sure we know she’s safe. Especially with everything that’s happening right now.” Derek said, 

“Her phone is going straight to voicemail and I haven’t seen her since yesterday around this time. I thought she was going over to Isaac’s for a bit but Isaac said she never got there.”

“Yeah, she texted saying she might come over and then never texted me again. I assumed she just ended up staying at home but then Derek called this morning and said she didn’t.” Isaac explained, “But it doesn’t feel like she’s hurt, it feels like she’s uncomfortable though, or discombobulated I guess.”

“We’ll find her.” Scott promises, “Let’s split up. Groups of three or four?”

“Yeah. Sounds good.” Derek says, but he’s zoned out and not in any place to be organizing the pack.

“Alright,” Scott says, clapping his hands together, “Allison, Kira and I will go together around the city limits. Peter, Boyd, and Erica search the town. Lydia, Aiden, Danny, and Ethan you’re in the preserve, to the east of the house. Jackson, Malia, and Liam you need to be in a car and look for any sign you can, go to Deaton and see if he’s heard anything and you can go to Chris if Deaton thinks it’s a smart idea. Derek, Stiles, and Isaac you guys take the west side of the preserve.”

“What do you mean if it’s a smart idea?” Malia asked.

“If it’s hunters we don’t want Chris in the middle, especially if it’s radical hunters. For one, Chris won’t have heard and two he’ll be in danger if he’s seen with any of us.” Scott explained, “Stay safe and in contact.”

They started taking off then, Scott holding back just long enough to grab a hold of Stiles’ arm, “Stiles, if it’s another witch you need to be careful. They know you’re the one figuring stuff out. They know that you’re the one who can solve what they’re doing. They want you dead and they’ll do anything in their power to make it happen.”

Stiles nodded in acknowledgement before smiling and grabbing a hold of Scott’s shoulder,  
“Don’t worry Scott, I can handle it. You be careful too. Okay? Alpha doesn’t mean immortal.”

Then Scott broke a smile in return and was running off, Kira and Allison running after him with a last glance at the two werewolves that Stiles was with. Both of them were running high on emotions and low on focus which worried Scott a little but if he knew anything, it was that Derek would die for Stiles without a second thought to his own wellbeing. 

“I can’t lose her.” Isaac said as they were walking through the woods, “She’s the only one who really trusted me right off the back.”

“She’s my only sister left. Besides Peter, she’s the only part of my family I have.”

Stiles stayed silent, knowing this wasn’t really a conversation that he needed to be a part of. Aside from Derek being the one to really get Isaac out of his previous living situation, the main reason they were so close is because of how much Cora cared for both of them. She was the one that motivated them to work through their fights and had helped Isaac learn to trust each member of the pack as they were brought in. 

“We’ll find her.” Isaac said, “We have to.”

“We will.” Stiles said, “Just, keep your defenses up.”

“I don’t think its witches.” Derek said, switching subjects, “We haven’t seen anything really abnormal recently that could be attributed to them and I haven’t caught any whiff of magic since the incident with Lydia. I think we’re looking at humans, hunters.”

“So Chris shouldn’t be involved.” Stiles said.

“Right, tell Scott that, and Jackson’s group.” Derek said.

Stiles was immediately texting them and Derek kept him on path with a hand wrapped around his bicep, leading him along. Isaac was flipping his head back and forth the whole time, staring one way a little longer sometimes as if he could see all the way through the trees and find Cora just by watching. 

“Stop.” Derek ordered. The two both turned to look at him, freezing in their places. They’d probably made it two miles by then. Isaac was frantically searching for a scent, for anything that had made Derek stop, “She’s close.”

“How do you know?” Isaac hissed.

“Feel Isaac, stop smelling.” Derek instructed.

Isaac did just that, closing his eyes and relaxing his muscles. And then he seemed to wake up, his eyes flew open and he nodded to Derek and Stiles. Derek jerked his head forward, giving Isaac the go ahead and then grabbing a hold of Stiles and pushing him behind him, to take up the rear.

They only moved ahead a little further and then saw Cora. She was conscious, and seemed to be fighting, but she was losing energy quickly. There was a chain wrapped around her neck, connected to a tree behind her. Another chain was wrapped around her torso and keeping her hands latched behind her. She kept jerking forward though, her feet free and trying to get some purchase on the ground but unable to because every time she so much as took a step forward they were jabbing her with what looked like a wooden stake, or they were throwing rocks or even just using their fists. Her nose looked like it’d started bleeding a few times before healing, now it was healed crooked.

She suddenly stopped though and her nose tilted toward the sky, her eyes were then flying around her, searching for the smell of pack that she had caught just a hint of. They seemed to catch on the three of them for a split second but then she was moving along again, presumably so she didn’t give away their cover. It did have her retreating though, moving back towards the tree instead of continuing to fight which must’ve given it away to the hunters who simultaneously turned their back on her and searched the trees as well.

Isaac almost growled in anger and was just about to bolt forward when Derek grabbed a hold of his arm and yanked him close, right next to where Stiles was standing as well. Then Derek was whispering to them, “Keep quiet. Our advantage is they don’t know where we’re coming from. We’re attempting to capture, not kill right now. But, if deadly force is necessarily then deadly force is what we’ll use. They’re torturing Cora. Isaac, you go for the two on the far left, they’re both unarmed so you should be able to get a pretty easy handle. Stiles, go for the one in the center, he doesn’t have anything on him either but he looks like the leader. I’ll take the two on the far right.”

All three took a deep breath and nodded.

“Go.”

They were moving forward within seconds and Stiles could see Isaac take down the man with ease before he was evenly matched with the woman who seemed to be intent on going for the face. That made Isaac livid when he glanced back to the blood running down Cora’s face.

Derek had grabbed the stake and was almost immediately dropping it. It was coated in wolfsbane and would be there reason as to why Cora had injuries in her stomach that had yet to heal. Apparently, they hadn’t gotten serious yet though because nothing was too deep and she was still conscious indicating that she hadn’t lost too much blood.

Stiles gave him an odd look but then had a right hook land squarely on his jaw that was seem intent to never heal with Aiden’s last punch finally not causing him any pain. He groaned in annoyance and was dropping down and sweeping his feet out to knock the hunter off his. Stiles landed a hit on him in revenge and then a second to knock him out before he was jumping up and looking to where Isaac had just knocked out his second. Derek looked like he was easily finishing off his second and so the other two went toward Cora.

“Isaac.” She breathed, “Help me out… please…”

Isaac was then grabbing a hold of the chains and then jerking back to look down at his red and blistered hands, “They coated the chains.”

Stiles nodded, not surprised, and said, “Check their pockets, see if they have the key on them. Derek, you good?”

“Good.” Derek assured, wiping the blood off his hands. “Cora?”

“Please get me out, please. It burns, please.” She had started to cry and was practically begging them with her eyes. Isaac looked broken as he looked at the last hunter and didn’t find the key. “Isaac?”

“I’m so sorry… I don’t see it…”

“It’s okay.” Stiles assured, standing in front of Cora, “It’ll be fine. Just take a deep breath okay. Is there anything you remember, either about what they said or where they key might be?”

She shook her head helplessly and by then both Derek and Isaac were right next to them. Isaac was wiping the tears off her face and smiling reassuringly as he ripped part of his shirt off to start rubbing at the dried blood, “It’ll be okay.”

Then Stiles was walking around the tree and grabbing a hold of the lock, he could do this. Deaton had promised him that the spark was more than just mountain ash. He could do more with it if he practiced. He’d been practicing, luckily on locks because it seemed to come up more often than not. He wrapped on hand around it and focused all of his energy on it.

The lock seemed to give then and Stiles breathed out a sigh of relief, ignoring the looks that Derek and Isaac were giving him. He had a feeling Derek would drill him about that tomorrow or as soon as they got alone. Stiles hadn’t wanted any of them worrying about him or his practices so he’d kept it on the down low since he’d started.

Isaac watched helplessly as Stiles unwrapped the chain from the tree and then from where it was around Cora. Once he’d gotten it properly unwound they were left with the cuffs around her wrists and the cuff around her neck. Stiles took a deep breath and wrapped his hands around those too, “I’m sorry if it feels weird, probably warm. Deaton said that it might start to feel like you’re getting a sunburn. I’ll do my best to control it though.”

“It’s okay. It’s already burning now.” Cora said, “Please hurry Stiles. They’re digging into the burns.”

“I’m sorry.” Stiles said again. Then he was again focusing on the cuffs and squeezing his eyes shut. They came undone after a few seconds and as soon as Cora brought her hands in front of her Isaac was wrapping his hands gently around her wrists and pulling all the pain he could. Derek was grabbing a hold of Stiles’ shoulder and looking at him worriedly.

“You look like you’re about to pass out.”

“I just don’t have a lot of stamina.” Stiles said, brushing him off. “It’s okay. I’m almost done.”

Derek looked like he wanted to object, but then he looked back at his sister who was shaking in pain and fear and residual adrenaline and he sighed, telling Stiles to go on. “Okay, you can do it.”

“Sorry if this hurts Cora.”

“Stop apologizing and just do it Stiles.” Isaac snapped. 

Derek glared at him a little, telling him to back down and Isaac gave Stiles an apologetic look. Stiles ignored the entire exchange before his hands were on the cuff around her neck. He felt it working, felt like it was just about done when he heard a click from above them. He knew he should’ve stopped, knew it was some sort of trap, but Cora was crying again and the other two looked like they were going to try and rip it off if he couldn’t get it so he pulled it off and then shoved her down, pulling Isaac with her and leaving Derek to get shot in the shoulder with an arrow from above.

“Derek!” Cora called out. Isaac was holding her basically in his lap, still pulling pain and running his hands over her.

“I’ve got him.” Stiles assured, “Text the rest of the pack. Cora, you need Deaton to clean up where they stabbed you.”

Stiles was leaning over top of Derek, holding him down with one hand and smiling a little, “Sorry big bad, I only had two hands I couldn’t pull you down too.”

“It’s okay.” Derek assured, “Get Cora out of here.”

“Isaac can do that.” Stiles said, he looked to Isaac and said, “Take her to Deaton. Send a couple of people here to get the hunters out of here, Chris should be safe to help. We need to figure out what they want from us.”

“Derek, is there wolfsbane on that arrow?”

“No, I don’t think so. At least not in the head of it.” Then Derek was grabbing the wood and about to pull it out when he shook his head, “This part does though. That’s stupid.”

Isaac was pulling Cora up, helping her onto his back and then starting to head off. “You sure you’re good?”

“Yeah, thanks Isaac. We’ll be okay.”

Stiles grabbed a hold of the arrow then and met Derek’s eyes, “Ready?”

“Ready.”

Stiles silently thanked Derek for not making any noise when he met resistance with the arrow having to pull through already healing skin. If he would’ve cried out or anything Stiles was pretty sure he’d give up and feel so bad that he couldn’t finish the job. He threw the arrow off to the side as soon as he could and pushed a hand to the slowly bleeding wound.

“It’s fine.”

“I know, just… just let me help you. Alright?”

“You saved my sister. You’ve helped me enough.” Derek promised.

“I mean, I had quite a bit of help from you and Isaac. It would’ve been impossible without you two.”

“It would’ve been impossible without you.” Derek said, grabbing a hold of Stiles face like he was so fond of doing now, “We couldn’t touch the chains. She’d still be bleeding and in pain if it wasn’t for you. So just take the thank you.”

Stiles gave in and pressed his head to Derek’s, the exhaustion catching up now that there wasn’t a direct threat and Derek seemed to notice. “I’m really sick of people hitting you in the face.”

“Me too.” Stiles said with a laugh.

“Let’s get you home. These guys aren’t going anywhere and they’ll be people here to deal with them soon enough.” Derek pulled him up and surveyed the scene for a couple seconds. They started walking slowly, Stiles leaning into Derek more and more as they went along. “By the way, don’t think for a second that I’m not going to drill you about how you got those unlocked. I just figure you could use a little while to think up a lie before I tell you that I know you’re lying.”

“You know me so well.” 

Derek leaned down a little and Stiles felt his lips brush against his temple. He startled to a stop and Derek stopped just one step in front of him. “I… I’m sorry….”

“No. No, it’s fine. I just, you took me by surprise.” Stiles said. “Is that going to be a thing now?”

“Don’t overthink it please. Don’t freak out over it.” Derek sighed, “A lot of emotions, you know? And… well… yeah. It might be a new thing but let’s not dig into it just yet. You’re not off the hook for whatever this Deaton training you thing is.”

“You’ve already said that.” Stiles smirked, taking the step even with Derek and then intertwining their fingers, “Come on, let’s get back. Cora’s going to be in a rough state for a while and she’ll need the pack. I’m also within about five minutes from passing out right now.”

That got Derek’s attention and he was letting go of Stiles’ hand and turning around, “Jump on. I know magic takes it out of you.”

“Not magic, just a hat trick.”

“Whatever.”

When they got back to the house, the rest of the pack was waiting aside from Peter, Allison, and Scott who’d gone with Chris to do what they could with the hunters. Cora and Isaac were still at Deaton’s but Isaac had just texted Derek to tell him they were on their way back.

Derek had dropped Stiles back to the ground just outside of the house and it had jolted Stiles awake again but as soon as they got inside he was pushing Stiles onto the corner spot of the couch with a blanket flying at him a few seconds later. He turned to look at Ethan and said, “Get him something to eat.”

Ethan looked confused but did as he was told while Derek filled everyone else in on what had happened, keeping the part about Stiles out of it for the time being. Stiles gave him a look but Derek just shook his head slightly. Ethan came out with a plate full of pizza rolls and dropped them on to Stiles’ lap, “You okay?”

“Yeah, just, coming down from an adrenaline rush.” Stiles lied partly, “You know, a sugar low and stuff is all. Thank you. Although, this is probably the least healthy recovery meal I’ve ever been given.”

“Beggars can’t be choosers.” Ethan shrugged, giving Stiles’ shoulder a pat, “Are you sure you’re alright? You’re really pale, and sweaty.”

Derek came over when he heard that, looking at Stiles as well who was starting to eat the pizza rolls slowly. They were both momentarily distracted when Isaac walked in with Cora latched to his side, looking a little shaky and still in soiled clothes but she was whole and moving on her own at least. Derek was next to her in a little less than a second and he was wrapping his arms around her tightly, then putting her at arm’s length and looking her over.

“Are you okay?”

“I will be.” She promised, “I just… I need a little bit.”

“Of course, go get some rest.” Derek said, hugging her another time.

She smiled and then glanced to Stiles, “Thank you.”

“Of course.” Stiles said, “Get better. We need you out there kicking everyone’s asses.”

Then she was heading upstairs, pulling Isaac along with her. They ended up curled together on the bed, Cora resting her head on Isaac’s shoulder as he ran a hand through her hair, “How’re you feeling?”

“Pretty helpless.” Cora admitted, “But I’ll be alright.”

“There were five of them and one of you. That’s cowardly, there’s nothing for you to be ashamed of.” Isaac said, “None of us would’ve done any different than you.”

“Thank you.” Cora said, smiling up at him. 

Once Derek had finished his check on Cora, he turned back to Stiles. The rest of the pack that was there had gone off to do their own thing, aside from Ethan who had sat down next to Stiles, much to the human’s annoyance.

“As much as I love your presence, Ethan, what do you want?”

“Something’s off.” Ethan said. “You’re not okay.”

“I promise, I’m fine.”

“No, he’s right.” Derek said. He dropped down to his knees in front of Stiles, “You’re off. Your scent is off and there’s something different. Sickly. You have to tell us.”

“I swear, I don’t feel different.” Stiles said, “I mean, tired and little bit like I’m going to get the flu but, nothing else like that.”

“Call Deaton.” Derek said, glancing up to Ethan. “Stiles, lay down.”

“Dude…”

“No, just… do it.”

That got Stiles worried a little bit. Derek knew he hated to be told what to do, knew he’d ask questions and Derek would usually supply answers for that reason. Derek liked to make sure that Stiles was in the know. But whatever was wrong now had Stiles leaning back, allowing Derek to put one of the couch pillows under his head and tuck the blanket a little tighter around him.

“Deaton’s on his way.” Ethan said, hovering by anxiously, “What’s going on?”

“The hunters knew. There was something on those cuffs. Something other than wolfsbane.”

“Poison. They poisoned me.” Stiles said, almost awe in his voice as he melted back into the couch a little, “It wasn’t a trap for you guys. It was a trap for me. Fuck. Tell… tell Scott and them not to touch anything.”

“I’m on it.” Ethan said, immediately calling Scott and mumbling into the phone as Derek’s hands hovered around Stiles. “They know not to touch it. They’re leaving it be for now and getting the hunters back to Chris’ house. Do you have any idea what it could be?”

Stiles shook his head no and the two saw him gulp in what must have been fear. Derek was grabbing a hold of his hand, “Stiles, you’re going to be fine.”

“Why aren’t we taking him to the hospital?” Ethan asked.

“Good question.” Stiles said, eyes reopening and looking up to where Derek was grinding his teeth together, “I mean, not that you don’t have your reasons for anything but I’d like to be enlightened.”

“I think it’s only working through your magic. It’s too dangerous for anyone to handle poison if they’re putting it as carelessly as just on the chains. And none of us were affected. Even with our healing we would’ve felt something even if it only lasted for a little while. I think that this was specifically tailored to you.”

“Hey, Derek…”

“What is it Stiles?”

“I’m feeling it now.” 

He still had his eyes closed and Ethan was looking at Derek with concern. Ethan kept Derek’s eye and told them both, “Deaton should be here soon.”

Lydia and Aiden were walking in from outside then and they were about to passively walk by the couch when they both flipped toward the couch. Aiden spoke up first, “What’s going on?”

Ethan turned to the two of them, “Stiles has been poisoned.”

That snapped both of them into movement, Lydia coming down next to Derek and putting her hand on Stiles’ forehead. Her brows creased together in worry and Derek shook his arm a little bit, “Stay awake Stiles, we’re getting help.”

“We should get some water into his system.” Lydia said, “See if we can get his metabolism to work as much of it out of his system as possible.”

Derek nodded and, with Aiden’s help, they got him sitting upright. Ethan had gone off back into the kitchen to get the water. Aiden seemed to notice the difference then, “That smell is the poison?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m guessing.” Derek said. “Wake up, Stiles.”

Ethan returned just as there was a knock at the door. Aiden called for them to come in as Stiles took the water to gulp half of it down in one go. Deaton came walking in then, gesturing for Derek and Lydia to move out of his way. Derek didn’t go far, moving to sit next to Stiles as Ethan took his spot back on the other side. 

“Okay Stiles,” Deaton said, “I’m going to draw some blood. I’ve got a test for common poisons and we’ll see if there’s anything we can combat right away.”

Stiles nodded and stuck his arm out, allowing Deaton to wrap the band around it and then start drawing the blood. Lydia had disappeared for a minute or so only to come back with her computer and sit on the other side of Ethan. “Tell me your symptoms.”

Stiles cleared his throat a little, pulling his eyes away from the blood that Deaton was dropping into separate vials and looking to Lydia. “Uhm, my stomach is rolling. I’m tired…”

“Fever.” Ethan added.

“Discoordination.” Derek chimed in.

“Generally shitty feeling.” Stiles concluded.

“That’s not a very specific symptom.” Lydia said, smiling at him a little bit.

“Finish that water.” Ethan said, nudging Stiles’ arm a little bit.

Deaton was staring at the vials, looking a little bit put out and looking like he didn’t have any answers. “There’s nothing here. None of the common poisons. Whatever they had isn’t something that is used commonly among the general public.”

“What can impair him through his magic?” Derek asked.

Aiden seemed a little startled but Lydia just nodded in agreement. Stiles looked at her in confusion but she rolled her eyes, “Really? You think I didn’t know. Come on Stiles, give me some credit.”

“My bad.” Stiles coughed out. He was looking worse and worse, hand losing its grip on the mostly empty water bottle and only being saved from a lap full of water thanks to Ethan who snapped it up quickly. 

“How’re you feeling?” Derek asked, his hand getting a grip on the back of Stiles’ neck and squeezing gently.  
“Exhausted.”

“You can sleep.” Deaton said. “Get him up to a bed and comfortable. We’ll work on what the poison is. It’s probably best for him, all his energy should be focused on expelling whatever this is. You should call Melissa over here though, see if she can get an IV set up to get him some fluids.”

Aiden was immediately calling Melissa while Deaton and Lydia went to the dining room table, talking over what they knew and trying to figure out just what it could be. Derek lifted Stiles up, keeping the blanket wrapped around him and carrying him up the stairs into his bedroom. Ethan trailed behind him and helped him settle Stiles down onto the middle of the bed.

“Someone should update Scott and that group.” Ethan said, pulling the blinds closed.

“We don’t need to.” Derek said, “They’re pulling in.”

“How’s Cora?” Stiles asked, voice thready and stuttered.

“Better than you.” Derek said, “Worry about yourself, okay?”

A thundering of footsteps on the stairs had all of them turning towards the door where Scott and Allison tumbling into the room while Peter walked in much more composed a couple of seconds later. “What’s going on? Stiles? Are you okay?”

Stiles waved his hand weakly and Scott was jumping to kneel on the bed next to him, “I’m okay, just a little poison or something.”

“Poisoned?!” Scott exclaimed, “I mean, Ethan said there was something on the chains but I thought it was targeting the wolves, not you.”

“We’ll explain later.” Derek said, “For now, we’re waiting for your mom to come over and make sure he’s as okay as he can be.”

“How’s Cora?” Allison asked.

“Rattled, she’s coping though. She’s sleeping now, Isaac’s in there with her. She’ll probably wake up soon though, you guys aren’t exactly quiet.”

“I’ll go check in on them.” Allison said, “Give you all some more room in here.”

“I’ll go help Deaton and Lydia.” Peter said, “I might know some things about poison.”

“Shocking.” Ethan muttered under his breath. 

Stiles had passed out then, finally fully asleep rather than the half in half out state he’d been in for a while. Scott had gotten off the bed and was moving to sit on the couch against the wall, running a frustrated hand through his hair. "So, Cora was bait?”

“Seems like it.” Derek agreed. 

“That’s a change.” Scott said, “Usually it’s the other way around.”

“That’s what we figured.” Derek said, “The thing was rigged too, to shoot an arrow once the collar was off. I think that they were hoping it’d hit him and the poison would be accelerated by the fact that he was bleeding out which would weaken him even more.”

“How did they think that he’d be alone?” Ethan asked.

Derek shrugged, sitting down on the bed next to Stiles. “They don’t know something about the pack. I don’t think they were connected with the witches though. The witches know we don’t go off on our own, they know that we travel together. So this is a whole other threat.”

“Do we think they’re an isolated incident?” Ethan asked.

“Chris is looking into it. I hope so though. We don’t want to have to be watching our backs for a second threat though.” Derek had a grip on Stiles’ wrist; it seemed to be his thing to keep a hand on Stiles’ pulse whenever there was even an inkling of trouble.

“He’ll be okay.” Scott assured, “My mom’s nearly here and Deaton and Lydia are doing whatever they can to figure out what it is. They’ll know soon.”

Ethan excused himself from the room, leaving Stiles to be with the two alphas as he went to update the remaining pack members who were getting anxious being left out of the loop. One by one they came in, checking in and asking both Scott and Derek if there was anything they could do. Both promised that everything was already being done and all they could do now was wait.

Melissa got there a short while later and was assuring Scott that Stiles was going to be okay as soon as she stepped in the room, pausing briefly to give him a hug before setting up next to Stiles and starting an IV. “It’s a precaution. We just want to make sure he’s at his best as he fights off whatever this is.”

Lydia walked in then, glancing at Stiles before making eye contact with Derek and saying, “It’s just meant to weaken him. It won’t kill him. From what we’ve gathered it’s just got to run its course. He’ll be okay but it’ll take a while. We assume it has about a week to go through his system.”

“And what’ll happen to him through that week?” Derek asked, “We can’t just let him lie here and suffer for seven days.”

Lydia looked a little hesitant to say whatever she was going to next but she shook her head to clear it and told them, “It will just feel like the flu maximized. He’ll just be sick. That’s not our biggest problem though. We think that they did it to put him out of commission, weaken the pack. If they attack they’re either attacking to grab him at his weakest or attacking us by doing something only Stiles could get us out of.”

“That’s a pretty elaborate plan.” Scott says, looking to where Melissa was packing up the remainder of her supplies, “And we have all the hunters captured.”

“No, we don’t. There’s probably two more alive and free for each one we captured.” Lydia said, “Chris got a hold of some people and found out they’re from somewhere in the South, he’s not sure why the care so much about hunting us though.”

“So now we’ve got two covens to worry about, allied to a pack, and a bunch of hunters. Great.” Scott was looking more and more overwhelmed as he listened, “We’ve got to make some more allies.”

“I’ve already talked to the Stewardson pack we allied with not too long ago. They’re geographically closer to the covens and pack so they’re going to keep an eye on them for us. They know some people even farther north that can help with that. As far as the hunters, we’ve got Chris and everyone he knows still watching for us. It must’ve been a surprise attack when they came up here, they’re keeping on the down low.” Derek says.

“We can handle this.” Lydia says, nodding to them. “We’ll figure it out.”

"We're two pack members down right now. That means someone on duty to keep track of them and make sure they're alright while the rest of us make sure that no one's on our territory without our knowledge. Cora should be fine in a couple days, physically. As far as mentally she'll probably be a little jumpy but she'll still be fine to help. We've got to make sure Stiles isn't left alone, if they're going after him then they're going to try and lure us out to get to him." 

Scott nodded and then said, "For now, we should all get some rest. I have a feeling we'll be needing it.


	15. Lapse in Memory (Malia)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny and Malia were both there, circling two witches who had their backs to each other and were throwing spells at the two of them left and right. They were managing okay, lunging every so often to try and throw the witches off but they seemed to be stuck in a standstill. He wasn’t going to be able to sneak down the stairs without the witches seeing him and either coming after him or strengthening their attacks on Danny and Malia.

Stiles threw up at least five times a day. He was asleep more often than not and he was only partially aware of what the pack was doing around him. He knew that there was always someone there with him though. Every time he woke up someone was coaxing food or water down his throat. He knew he didn’t have the IV in anymore, he’d heard something about them getting enough nutrition to him on their own and they’d rather not risk any infection. He also knew that Scott and Derek had taken turns changing his clothes so he wasn’t drenched in fevered sweat. A few times he remembered opening his eyes to Allison wiping a washcloth over his head and scrubbing it a little bit through his hair. He had a good pack.

The sixth day, when he had finally stopped throwing up and was more consumed with that overall ache you get when you’re sick, he heard a lot of racket from the pack. There was a clamor of a few of them running up the stairs and he pried his eyes open just in time to see Liam, Danny, and Malia fall through his door.

“Stiles,” Liam said, coming right next to him and snapping his fingers a little, “You with us?”

“I’m awake.” Stiles said, “So, I’d say yes.”

The three looked at each other with a little eye roll before Malia said, “Sometimes you’re only half awake and you don’t remember what we say. Clearly, that isn’t the case right now.”

“What’s going on?” Stiles asked.

“The witches are in the territory, a little outside of town. The rest of the pack is spreading out to hold them off and neutralize the threat.” Danny says, “We’re protecting the house.”

“Me. You’re stuck on Stiles duty.”

“It’s not bad. We’re not mad.” Malia promises, “But it’d be best if you stayed conscious, just stay with us for a little while.”

“Of course.” Then Stiles was listening to see if they’d all already taken off from downstairs, it sounded quiet and he looked up to where Danny was looking out the window. He was still in Derek’s room, and he was pretty sure he hadn’t actually moved for most of the last week so when he slung his legs over the side of the bed and went to stand he was surprised at how difficult that turned out to be.

“Whoa…” Liam said, grabbing a hold of his shoulder and making sure he didn’t fall over, “What’re you doing Stiles?”

“Showering.” Stiles said, “I need to be up… that’ll help wake me up.”

Malia looked nervous about the idea but just shrugged at Liam who let go of Stiles shoulder, “Okay, just… don’t pass out in there or something. I don’t really want to have to rescue your naked ass.”

“Thanks Malia. That’s sweet of you.” Stiles huffed, heading off toward the bathroom.

When he finally got into the shower he had to admit it was probably the most relieving shower he’d ever felt; finally washing all of the sick off, the old sweat and the smell of staleness, felt absolutely wonderful. But, he was still sick so halfway through washing his hair he was leaning out of the shower spray and throwing up the toilet lid, throwing up while still being underneath the water.

“Stiles? Are you alright in there?” Danny called, “Do you need help?”

“I’m good.” Stiles said, coughing a little bit and spitting into the toilet, “Just… still sick is all.”

They left him alone then and he managed to finish his shower without any more problems. He toweled dry and then pulled on the clothes that one of the others must’ve put in on the sink counter. Just as he was about to open the door he heard a short yell and a thud from in the bedroom.

He knew that wasn’t a good sign, knew that him being relatively useless wasn’t going to help either. So, he yanked the towel rod off the wall and slowly opened the door. Right outside the door, Liam was lying on the ground, presumably stopping someone from going into where Stiles was and being knocked unconscious trying. Stiles squatted down just long enough to put a shaky hand down to Liam’s neck and let out a huge sigh of relief when there was still a pulse.

He was about to call out for Danny and Malia when he figured that would probably be the stupidest thing to do. So, he glanced out the window and he wasn’t sure if he was happy not to see anything or if it made him more concerned. He made his way over to the side of the bad, grabbing a hold of his phone and sending a short, quick text to Derek and Scott, telling them to pass it on.

Within just a few seconds Derek was sending a frantic text back asking if Stiles was okay. He was about to answer when he heard growling coming from downstairs. He dropped his phone into his pocket and was then moving as quietly as he could toward the stairs and glancing down to see if he could get any indication of what was going on.

Danny and Malia were both there, circling two witches who had their backs to each other and were throwing spells at the two of them left and right. They were managing okay, lunging every so often to try and throw the witches off but they seemed to be stuck in a standstill. He wasn’t going to be able to sneak down the stairs without the witches seeing him and either coming after him or strengthening their attacks on Danny and Malia.

So, Stiles was heading back to Derek’s room and pulling Liam far enough away from the window that he wouldn’t be at harm from anyone leaping through it. Then he threw a quick blanket over him and crawling out the window. He thanked his lucky stars that Scott had that little bit of time of being into parkour and made Stiles learn how to get of every window in the house. In hindsight, that was probably a very logical idea with everything they’d gone through.

He managed to get down with only a few seconds of dizziness and then he was heading toward the back door which would let him into the kitchen and still out of sight of the witches. He peeked his head around the corner and saw that the four were all standing still now. Danny then pounced, taking down the witch closest to him. Malia was going for the second one but some spell hit her square in the chest and knocked her to the floor. Danny was still composing himself after his attack and the witch was standing over Malia, her hand extended in front of her and apparently preparing for another attack.

Stiles was running out then, slamming the towel rack as hard as he could across the witches back and bringing her down on top of Malia. She rolled off and was about to leap up to attack again, Stiles in her sights now, when Stiles slammed the rod back against the side of her head, knocking her unconscious. He leaned down to feel her pulse, and was surprisingly relieved that he hadn’t killed her.

“Malia…” Stiles moved next to her, shaking her shoulder a little bit, “Wake up. Are you okay?”

She groaned and grabbed a hold of his wrist, “Stop shaking. Chest is throbbing.”

Stiles let out a huge breath and smiled down at her before turning to look at Danny who was wrapping a rope around the witch’s wrist that he’d attacked. He then moved onto the second witch as Stiles said, “You should go check on Liam. I think he’s just knocked out but we should make sure.”

“I think she crushed my sternum.” Malia complained, “Shit…”

“Let me help you up.” Stiles said, gently grabbing her arm and pulling a little bit when the door burst in to allow Derek, Jackson, Allison, and Ethan to come in and run next to them. 

“I’ve got her.” Jackson said, going to Malia’s other side and checking her over, “Are you okay?”

“I’m good. Stiles knocked her out before she could do any real harm.” Malia promised, “Are all the rest of you okay?”

“We’re okay.” Derek promised, coming over next to Stiles, “Nice to see you out of bed.”

“I’m going to be honest. It doesn’t feel great.” Stiles smirked, “My legs are not used to standing anymore. Weird how that works out. Ethan, Danny’s fine. He’s helping out Liam. He got knocked out right at the beginning.”

Allison and Ethan both headed up the stairs then, leaving Jackson to keep murmuring to Malia and helping her over to the couch and lowering her down with some pillows supporting her back. Stiles was about 75% sure that she was already most of the way healed but he also knew that Jackson needed to be able to help her to make himself feel better.

“The others will be back soon and they can take care of these two. It was one of the covens, no one else was hurt and we got all of them controlled. Erica and Boyd are helping Chris and the Sheriff round them up. They’re criminals in the real world too so they’ll be in trouble with more than just the supernatural community.” Derek explained. “You should lay back down though, you’re already getting really pale again.”

“I’m feeling better though. Thanks to you guys.”

Derek just smiled and wrapped an arm around his waist and started leading him upstairs and back into his room where Allison was still leaning over Liam, keeping a hand on his shoulder to hold him down. He was awake though, and seemingly okay. 

“You alright Stiles?” Liam asked, finally sitting up and allowing Allison to run her hands over his back.  
“Good. We’re all good.” Stiles promised, “Thanks for keeping them out of the bathroom. I really didn’t want to die naked.”

Liam laughed a little and Derek tightened his grip just slightly at that, probably his protective instincts kicking in and wishing that he’d been there. 

“So, one threat neutralized.” Allison said, “That’s a relief.”

“Now we’re down to one coven, one pack, and one group of hunters.” Derek continued, “It’s almost to a manageable point.”

“Almost.” Liam agreed.

“Why didn’t they come into the bathroom after they knocked you out?” Stiles asked.

“I don’t know…” Liam was shaking himself out a little bit, rolling his neck as he thought, “I heard them say something. Damn it.”

“It’s alright, it’ll come to you.” Allison assured. “You had the equivalent of being punched in the head, it’s not surprising your memory is spotty.”

“That’s not it.” Liam says, “I think, I should remember. It’s like there’s a piece in my memory that’s just absent.”

“Malia!” Derek called out, “Come up here!”

Jackson and Malia were there a few seconds later and Derek was asking, “What did the witch that hit you look like?”

Malia’s eyebrows scrunched together and she glanced to Jackson who was studying her with a little bit of worry, “I don’t remember.”

“Did anyone else get hit with a spell?” Stiles asked.

“I think Aiden and Isaac did. We’ll ask them when they get here.” Derek tells him while pushing him toward the bed.

“Think they knock memory out when they knock us out?” Allison asked.

“That’s what it seems like.” Derek responds, “I don’t really know why they’d do that though.”

“Maybe it’s just a precautionary measure.” Liam shrugs, “If they make a run for it then we won’t know what they look like. And we won’t remember what kind of spells they were throwing at us.”

“You’re probably right.” Stiles agreed. “Are you both alright other than the little gap of memory?”

Both Malia and Liam nodded after taking a quick inventory of themselves, and then Malia says, “The only thing that I can think of right now is eating.”

“That seems to be on your mind most of the time…” Allison smiles, “But I agree, we could all use some real food and it’ll be nice for Stiles to actually eat a meal with us for the first time this week.”

“Real food! No more soup!” Stiles cheered.

“But you’ll still be in bed by nine tonight probably.” Derek pointed out.

“It’s all uphill from here!” Stiles assured them, “Soon, we’ll have no enemies to worry about and I’ll be able to stay awake for more than an hour at a time!”


	16. Calm Before The Storm (Ethan)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ethan watched Deucalion produce a whip from somewhere behind him and it came down on Aiden ten times before it switched over to Ethan. Ethan did the same as Aiden, tilting his head down as far as he could so the whip would catch his back instead of his front and tried to keep in the shout of pain that resulted from a wolfsbane soaked whip ripping open their skin.
> 
> “Only ninety more.” Deucalion said with a smile, or as close of a thing to a smile that a sociopath could muster.

Derek had an open door policy at the pack house, that much was obvious. Most nights, aside from the Hales, at least two of the other pack members were there. Isaac tended to stay the most, mainly because he was kind of between houses right now. After his dad had died and he’d been in a foster home for a little bit, he’d been emancipated and lived with Scott. Now, he was a little over living at the McCall house which meant he was spending more and more time at the Hales, Cora may or may not have been the main reason behind that.

After Isaac was, surprisingly, Jackson who wouldn’t admit it but hated being at home alone after everything that happened which meant he had a room at the Hale house with half his clothes in the dresser. With Jackson came Malia who was the second resident of the first spare room.

Then it was the twins who had a shady apartment in a shady part of town which resulted in Derek coaxing them to stay over if there was ever a threat anywhere close. They secretly liked it, Stiles assumed, especially since Lydia and Danny were much more likely to stay at Derek’s than they were to stay at the apartment.

Stiles was next. He was doing a decent job of splitting time between his house and Derek’s but since it was the summer of their senior year, he wanted to spend as much time with his dad as possible. On the flip side, he didn’t want to draw problems there which resulted in him bailing every time it got a little rough and going to the pack house as his refuge.

It was the end of July when it was just Derek, Stiles, and Ethan at the house. Cora had gone with Isaac to some late night bowling and then they were going to go camping with Boyd and Erica. Peter had spent the night at the woman’s house that he’d been seeing recently. Aiden was at Lydia’s for the night since her parents were gone and Danny had gone out of town on vacation. It had become a common thing for Stiles to sleep with Derek now that they were relatively open about the relationship between them. At first it was only when one of them was hurt or sick or after a tough fight but they’d slowly started to spend the night even when everything was alright. And it seemed to make it more alright.

Derek, being the heater that he was, kept the room colder than Stiles would’ve ever kept his own. Thanks to that, Stiles used him as a blanket more times than not and Derek was happy to oblige, throwing his arm over Stiles and occasionally pinning Stiles to his chest by spooning him. Stiles wasn’t a huge fan of spooning, at least he hadn’t thought he was, until he found out that when it was with someone who he didn’t feel threatened his safety by having their mouth right next to his throat it was actually pretty nice.

That night, Derek jolted awake somewhere around two a.m. and his grip subconsciously tightened around Stiles who woke up in response. He groaned as he turned over and smacked at Derek who grabbed a hold of his hands in one of his own to keep them still.

“What?” Stiles asked.

“Ethan… his heart is going twice as fast as usual.” Derek said, rolling to get out of bed.

“Wait.” Stiles said, grabbing Derek’s arm, “I bet it’s a nightmare. Let me handle it. I know how to deal with them pretty well if I do say so myself.”

“Unfortunately, I think we all do.” Derek muttered. But he was already crawling back into bed and yanking the covers over top of him, “Be quick.”

Stiles pulled a sweatshirt over his ratty t-shirt and shuffled down the hallway, into the room that Ethan had claimed. He made his way over to the bed in the dark, only tripping over one loose pair of clothing that had been left on the floor, and then he sat on the side of the bed and grabbed a hold of Ethan’s shoulder.

“Ethan, come on… wake up.” Stiles shook a little harder and when Ethan still didn’t respond he grabbed a hold of both his biceps and pulled him into a sitting position, “Ethan, it’s a nightmare. Come on, it’s Stiles, wake up.”

\----

Ethan was stuck back with the alphas. Aiden was with him in the cellar of some old house and  
Deucalion was standing in front of them while they were on their knees with their hands chained behind their backs. 

“You think you can get away from this!? You chose this. This was your choice. Next time you try and run away, I’ll make sure you don’t have feet to run on.”

Ethan watched Deucalion produce a whip from somewhere behind him and it came down on Aiden ten times before it switched over to Ethan. Ethan did the same as Aiden, tilting his head down as far as he could so the whip would catch his back instead of his front and tried to keep in the shout of pain that resulted from a wolfsbane soaked whip ripping open their skin.

“Only ninety more.” Deucalion said with a smile, or as close of a thing to a smile that a sociopath could muster.

Ethan’s eyes were still screwed shut and he felt something on his shoulders.

Hands, no one’s hands would be doing that. None of the rest of the pack would help them, they wouldn’t be checking in on them. Then he heard Stiles’ voice. Stiles who wasn’t in this pack and wouldn’t be there at the moment.

\----

“Ethan!”

His eyes flew open then and Stiles kept a tight hold of him as he thrashed around a little bit. His head flew left and right as his eyes searched the room for any threat. He took a few deep breaths to try and calm down but the flashbacks kept coming even when he was awake.

“Ethan, you’ve got to breathe with me. Okay? You’re panicking. You’re okay and you’re not with the alphas anymore. We’re here for you. You’re okay.”

Ethan seemed to be calming down. He’d stopped frantically searching the room and he’d focused on Stiles in front of him. He put his own hands on his knees and pulled them up close to him so he was resting his head on his knees, and his hands went down to pull his ankles close. 

“Are you alright?”

“I’m okay. I’m okay.” Ethan assured, rocking back and forth a little bit and finally taking some deep breaths. “Fuck. How’re they still in my head? It’s been almost a whole year.”

“It’s okay. Nightmares don’t just depend on time. What they did to you was horrible and it’s going to be hard to get over. You can’t expect everything to just go away at once. Especially with everything going on around us, it’s a lot of stress, it brings back nightmares.”

“Yeah right.” Ethan scoffed, “No one else has nightmares.”

“Dude, Derek has them at least once a month and I’m ready to admit that I have them more often than that. Usually one of you is putting yourself in a stupid situation and dying and I can’t help but, I mean, it’s terrifying and it’s hard to deal with. It’s always better when someone else is there though.”

Ethan smirked a little bit and nodded, “Yeah, Danny usually wakes me up before I even notice they start.”

“He’s a good boyfriend.”

“Yeah, he really is.” Ethan agrees. “You can go back to bed with Derek if you want. I’m okay and I know he doesn’t sleep as well without you anymore.”

“Derek can deal for a little longer.” Stiles promises, “Do you want to talk about the nightmare?”

Stiles had scooched himself up so he was sitting next to Ethan, both of them leaning back against the headboard now. Ethan took a little bit to think about it, taking a few calming breaths again, before he summed it up with, “We were with the alpha pack, as you probably guessed. It was during the beginning when we’d realized we might of made a mistake. We’d tried to run away and when they caught us they locked us up in the basement. We got whipped a hundred times, the worst part was that we had to watch each other being whipped. Aiden passed out somewhere around eighty I think but he kept hitting him. It was horrible.”

“It’s not your fault.” Stiles says, “He would’ve done it no matter what, even if you hadn’t tried to run away. He would’ve thought of something to punish you for.”

Ethan just nodded a little and gave Stiles’ leg a squeeze, “Thank you.”

“Not a problem. You want to go back to sleep? Or we can go watch a movie for a little bit.”

“I’m good.” He said, “Promise, I’m really okay. Go back to Derek, he’s waking up again.”

“If you need anything, let me know.” Stiles says as he gets up, patting Ethan’s shoulder again before stumbling his way back to the door. “Night.”

“Goodnight.”

Once Stiles got back into the room, he fell into the bed in one heap, drowsiness making him even clumsier than normal. Derek managed to maneuver him back to his usual spot and nuzzled into his back a little bit, “Thanks. You were good. No one, except maybe Danny or Aiden, could’ve calmed him down that fast.”

Stiles snorted a little and turned so he was facing Derek, “Not a problem. We’ve all been there.”

“Unfortunately.” Derek said again.

“Go to sleep. We’re going to have a long day tomorrow. I think the witches will be down here again soon.” Stiles mumbled, “And I’m tired.”

“Goodnight.” Derek said with a smile, rubbing his hand down Stiles’ arm and then unzipping his sweatshirt and pushing it off of him before throwing it off of the bed, “Don’t need that. You smell more like you without it.”

Stiles tried not to laugh, and was pretty sure he managed alright, before replying, “Goodnight.”

The next morning, Ethan came in and threw a bagel at Stiles’ head. Stiles woke up with a jolt and glared at him, “Thanks again Stiles. Here’s breakfast in bed.”

“You’re so sweet Ethan, and they say opposites attract. Clearly you and Danny are just two peas in a pod of overwhelmingly nice people with great conversational skills.” Stiles threw the bagel back at him which he then proceeded to shove half of into his mouth in one go.

“Gross.” Derek said, “Table manners.”

“We’re not at a table.” Ethan snarked. “But really, I made breakfast. Danny’s going to be back later today and I think Cora, Isaac, Boyd, and Erica should be here in a half hour or so. I figured you’d want the good stuff before they ate it all. I doubt they ate well last night.”

That got Stiles rolling out of bed again and searching for the sweatshirt that Derek had so unceremoniously thrown onto the ground. “Come on, get up Derek! We’ve got a breakfast to devour! For what Ethan lacks in social skills he more than makes up for in culinary ability.”

It took Stiles yanking on Derek’s arm to get him up and out of bed and then they were following Ethan’s path into the kitchen and sitting on the stools at the counter. Ethan handed them both plates of bacon, sausage, and eggs and then grabbed one of his own to sit on Derek’s other side.

“You alright?” Derek asked, purposely keeping his eyes trained on his plate so Ethan didn’t get defensive. 

Ethan shrugged a little and then nodded, “I’m good. It happens.”

“That it does. By the way, they must’ve sped here because Cora, Isaac, Erica, and Boyd are already here. They only move that fast when food is the end goal.”

Stiles looked up just in time to see the four of them thunder into the room, their hands grabbing as much food as they could all in one go as they piled their plates up with food and each poured themselves a sizable glass of juice before going over to the dining room table. Ethan, Derek, and Stiles watched as they devoured half their plates before any of them said anything to the three who were clearly staring.

“Ethan must’ve cooked.” Cora said, “Because this is the best breakfast I’ve had in months.”

“Yeah right, you say that any time anyone makes you food.” Isaac joked, nudging her in the side with his elbow.

“Thanks Ethan!” Erica and Boyd cheered, looking up to the three sitting at the counter, Erica smiled to Ethan and raises her glass in thanks, “These two geniuses were on food duty and only brought four sandwiches for us to eat last night. Safe to say we’re starving.”

“This hits the spot.” Boyd agrees.

“We were rushed!” Isaac says, defending himself, “Besides, you’re fully capable too.”

Derek rolled his eyes and then cleared his throat a little before asking, “Any sign of any witches or hunters out there?”

“Nope.” Cora says, popping the ‘p’ as she shovels another slice of bacon into her mouth, “All clear for now. Not saying that they won’t wander in sometime today, but this morning there wasn’t any trails.”

“Good.” Stiles sighs, “I just want a day off.”

“We haven’t had any real problems for nearly a week.” Ethan points out.

“Yeah, well, still. Any day off is a good day off.” Stiles proclaims.

“True.” Isaac agrees, “Let’s just hope that this isn’t some sort of sign that we’re going to have a huge battle ahead.”

“Bro! You totally just jinxed us!” Stiles says, throwing one of his pieces of bacon at Isaac. Isaac just shrugs and rolls his eyes, making a point to eat the bacon as he smirks at Stiles who scoffs in disgust, “Gross, you’ll eat anything.”

“We’re wolves Stiles!” Isaac jokes, “What could you possibly expect?”

That got everyone in the room rolling their eyes but it was probably one of the most relaxed mornings they’d had for a while. Derek seemed completely at easy which was a rarity for him and Stiles couldn’t help but be thankful for that because he was a young alpha with a young, and large, pack. He needed a break whenever he could get it. Unfortunately, the breaks never last long enough.


	17. Drained (Peter)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now, Peter was strung up like a Halloween decoration. When Stiles screeched to a halt in front of Peter, he had to admit this was probably the most intricate way to leave someone tied up that he’d ever seen. Derek crashed into his back, almost shoving Stiles forward before managing to spin them both onto the ground, luckily. If he hadn’t, Stiles figured Peter would be dead.

Stiles felt bad for Peter. He didn’t like feeing bad for him because most of the time, that meant that something was really, really wrong. This time was no different. As far as Peter’s love life, it was practically nonexistent since the fire and the few women he did find himself attracted to never end up liking him the same way back. Maybe it was because he was hanging out with a bunch of teenagers all of the time. It was kind of sad that he couldn’t tell them the truth, that would make it easier for him to find someone, but they also might think he was crazy. Which, to be fair, he kind of was.

This time around, it wasn’t his fault that it was a bad situation. This time, it was the fault of them being a pack that was apparently very interesting to packs, covens, and hunters around the country. And, this time, it was the fault of the witch that had cast a spell of love over Peter. It wasn’t his fault, she’d also managed to hide any indicator she was a witch. 

Until now.

Now, Peter was strung up like a Halloween decoration. When Stiles screeched to a halt in front of Peter, he had to admit this was probably the most intricate way to leave someone tied up that he’d ever seen. Derek crashed into his back, almost shoving Stiles forward before managing to spin them both onto the ground, luckily. If he hadn’t, Stiles figured Peter would be dead.

He and Derek both stepped back then, to really figure out what was going on. Peter was on his tip toes, hands duct taped together in front of him while a rope was tied around his neck, held loosely so if he tipped forward, he’d be hung. Another rope wrapped around his chest and was keeping his arms latched to his side above his elbows. Back to his hands, a grenade was stuck between them, his hand holding down the handle to keep it from exploding. The pin had been pulled, meaning that Peter was the one keeping it from detonating. He also had duct tape over his mouth, and his feet were tied together at the ankles.

Jackson and Danny caught up then, looking at Peter as well and then to where Stiles and Derek were still just studying him.

“Why aren’t you getting him down?” Jackson asked.

“I think it’s a trick. I think that if we make one wrong move, we’ll all die. Either the grenade will go off or there’s some other booby trap that’ll get us. If they trap us then they’ll kill us. Or torture us. Or experiment on us. So we’re thinking.” Stiles said.

Jackson put his hands up defensively and nodded, “Okay, okay. Good to know. Then tell us what we can do to help.”

Stiles nodded and went forward carefully, watching his steps closely and then reaching up to pull the duct tape from off of Peter’s mouth. The pain brought him out of whatever little trance he was in and his eyes shot down to look at them, but his body stayed perfectly still.

“Okay, so do you know what they’ve got rigged up around you?” Stiles asked.

“If you cut any of the ropes around me, it’ll trigger the grenade. So, you’ve got to disengage that before you can do anything else. But, if you change the pressure on the handle it’ll trigger it too. That’s why my hands are taped around it, it keeps it the exact same pressure.”

Stiles processed for a second and then rubbed his hands against his eyes in frustration, “Any wolfsbane or can the wolves help?”

“Sorry Stiles, you’re on your own.” Peter smirked, “And it’d be great if you could figure it out quickly because they lined the duct tape and the ropes. You can call Lydia and Allison to help out if you want but form what I can tell, they’re off doing something else.”

“They are. They’re in the other two groups. One is searching for the witch and the other is figuring out how we didn’t realize that your girlfriend was part of a coven we’re adamantly against.” Derek explained.

“Well, why’d you get the small group?”

“Cora and Boyd will be here shortly. They were split up canvasing.” Danny explained, “I mean, that doesn’t help the wolfsbane thing but it’ll be moral support for Stiles.”

“God damn it.” Stiles complained. Then he was moving forward again, a cautioning hand on his shoulder from Derek, “It’s alright. I’ve got this.”

“Please be careful.” Derek said quietly, dodging the glances of Jackson and Danny who were standing awkwardly to the side, trying not to listen in, “Just, don’t do anything stupid.”

“I’ll do my best.” Stiles assured, going forward and hugging him quick before turning and taking a deep breath. “Alright Peter, let’s get you out I guess.”

Just as Stiles was starting to get to work, Cora and Boyd were there and cringing at the layout in front of them. They stayed back though, a little farther than Derek who was standing about as close as he could without being in the way. Jackson and Danny were somewhere in between.

Peter was just looking at Stiles somewhat amused, as best as he could in his predicament at least. He looked like he was trying to hold back fear though, so Stiles didn’t comment on it and instead grabbed ahold of the rope around his neck.

“If I can move the ropes without cutting them and keep them at the same length. It shouldn’t trigger anything. Then, I can get the duct tape off of you just enough that I can take the grenade and find out how to dispose of it. If we can get you away from the ropes, I can figure out how they’re linked to the grenade.”

“Are you telling me this or talking yourself through it?” Peter asked.

“Both.” Stiles admitted. “If it’s linked through magic, I figure we’re all dead.”

“It’s not.” Peter said, “I think it’s just physics. The only magic she used was getting me here. She muttered something about saving up her magic for the ‘big fight’. So, one problem at a time. We’ll fight in a while but for now I’d rather you just get me out.”

“Derek, maybe you guys should leave.” Stiles said, “Minimize the risk and such.”

“Stiles, we’re not leaving.” Derek insisted, “It’s going to be fine. We’re going to get Peter out and we’re all going to be fine.”

“Logically, that’s unlikely.” Stiles said, “And I wouldn’t judge you for leaving.”

“Stiles, the lack of optimism is getting to me.” Peter said, “So unless you’re going to have some major positive option, stop talking. Derek will not leave you if you’re in a shred of danger. The rest of the pack won’t either. So get past it.”

Stiles glanced at the five of them, Cora and Boyd moving forward so they were all even with Derek. Cora smiled at him, nodding her head a little bit, “You’ve got this. Now get going.”

Another breath and Stiles was pulling the rope as carefully as he could from around Peter’s neck, not tugging it or letting it go to lax. Then he was using his own little bit of magic to effect enough force on it that it’d stay in that state. Hopefully not triggering anything. Next, he went to the rope wrapped around his torso, it was also hung up on the branch above them and then around the trunk of the tree. Stiles had to hand it to the witch, she knew what she was doing. He loosened it just enough to shimmy it off of Peter, and then did the same thing he had before, leaving the rope hovering in the air like it was wrapped around an invisible person. Stiles was guiding Peter to lean forward just enough to not touch it. The final rope, around his ankles, was last. Stiles helped him to step out, one foot at a time and did the final spell to leave it in the air.

Peter let out a sigh of relief, the wolfsbane no longer cutting into his skin at that many points. Now, all that was left was the hardest part. “Okay, pull your hands apart as far as you can. Then, I’ll grab a hold of it and pull it out of your hands.”

“How do you plan on getting rid of it once it’s in your hands?” Peter asks, “Because as much as I don’t want the wolfsbane coating that all over me, I have a feeling it’s not just filled with the normal explosives, if they’re trying to kill us, they’ll have some inside of it too. We won’t heal from that, and you’ll definitely not heal from that.”

“I get that Peter. Thank you.” Stiles snapped sarcastically.

“Stiles, what is the plan?” Jackson asked.

Stiles looked to the five of them and then informed them, “I have a plan. Don’t worry. Just, trust me.”

“As much as we all trust your intelligence,” Danny started, “I would like to be included in this plan of yours so I can know if I should send Ethan a goodbye text.”

Derek flipped his head and growled at him a little bit, “He can figure it out.”

“Thanks for the faith Der,” Stiles smirked, turning back to Peter and then giving him a nod, “Start.”

Peter was slowly pulling his hands away then; bloody, red, and burnt looking hands for that matter, and as he pulled away Stiles slid his hands in. He managed to get a hold of it and then realized how they’d kept the ropes attached to the grenade.

“Stop.” Stiles said, voice a little shaky. “Shit.”

“What? What’s going on? Is it going to explode?” Boyd asked.

“Uhm, no… it’s just… she wrapped fishing wire through the ropes and then into the grenade. That means that if we would’ve cut the rope, it would’ve disengaged the safety of the grenade and made it explode. Now, if the duct tape is removed it’ll pull on those same lines. Also, if I’d let Peter move away any farther it probably would’ve pulled on them.”

“So, what’s the plan now?” Boyd asked, “Because that doesn’t seem like something you were planning for.”

“Clearly, it was not.” Stiles said, taking in another deep breath. “You have to move the duct tape onto me. If I can hold it I may be able to get a mental map of it, kind of. I think I know a spell that’ll let me essentially see inside of it without doing anything to open it. Then, I can try and disengage whatever she did to make the fishing line activate the explosive. Okay?”

“Okay.” Derek said, his voice surprisingly calm. All of the others looked at him a little surprised. Because if there was one thing Derek was not, it was calm when Stiles was in danger. Stiles looked a little startled too and turned to Derek who gave him a slight smile and then he walked toward the two of them, “What should I do?”

“Slide the duct tape off of Peter as well as you can, without tugging at the grenade. I’ll keep a hold of the grenade and grab it as you put the duct tape back onto me. That will keep it stable. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“There’s still wolfsbane on the tape so it’ll hurt you a little bit.” Stiles said, “Sorry.”

“It’s okay Stiles.” Derek said, still just as calm, “Let’s do this.”

Cora looked like she was going to speak up but Boyd grabbed a hold of his shoulder and shook his head. Nothing was going to change the plan, there wasn’t another plan, there wasn’t another way to make this work.

Within a few seconds, Stiles was the one with the explosive. Stiles was the one holding the live grenade and Peter was backing away quickly, holding his hands together as he tried to get them to start healing. Derek was still right next to Stiles, holding onto his elbows lightly to keep them steady as Stiles started to shake.

“What’s going on? Stiles, are you okay?” Danny asked.

“I’m okay.” Stiles promised, “You guys really should move away.”

“Stiles,” Jackson snapped, “You wouldn’t do that to us, we aren’t going to do that to you.”

Stiles looked at Jackson who gave a rare smile that Stiles returned and then he was focusing all of his attention on the grenade sitting in his hands.

“Derek, you can’t be touching me when I do this. It’ll do more harm than good, I could hurt you. I’ll be okay but you’ve got to take a step back.” Stiles said, looking him in the eye for a brief second, “You might get some residual magic that’ll hurt you. So take a step back.”

Derek did just that but his eyes tracked every millimeter movement that Stiles made as he shifted just enough to grip the grenade a little better. He took a deep breath in and was then closing his eyes. He picked through the layers of the grenade as well as he could, he figured out what was holding what together. He saw how the fishing wire was attached. And he could’ve thrown it down in rage if he didn’t know better because that witch was a fucking genius.

“She’s really smart.” Stiles whispered, still trying to figure out just what he was supposed to do, “She definitely knew what she was doing.”

“You can do something though, right?” Cora asked.

“Of course.” But it might take everything out of him. Once he got the fishing line unhooked and then threw the grenade as far as he could away from himself and the wolves, he was almost positive he’d be on the ground and that’s not the situation they needed right now. They didn’t need him drained of magic for the foreseeable future. They needed that skill, that ability because otherwise those witches would be able to throw up some mountain ash and restrain the only other two humans in the pack and they’d be well on their way to a win.

He didn’t have another option though, if he didn’t disengage the wire, it’d explode right there in his hands and kill all seven of them. If he didn’t throw it far enough, it’d still affect them. It was, quite literally, all resting in his palms.

“Is it working?” Boyd asked.

“Don’t talk, he needs to focus.” Derek snaps, “Listen, you can hear the metal shifting. He’s doing something but you can’t break his focus or it could explode on us right now.”

They all zipped their mouths shut and listened as well as they could to hear what Derek was talking about. Sure enough, there were little clicks and little snips and all of a sudden Stiles was snapping out of it and his head flew up. He shifted his hands, working the duct tape off because it had made itself tighter around his hands. 

This was going to be the end, then. He’d done the magic, he’d done the hardest part, but now it was going to be duct tape that was going to kill him. His breathing hitched in his throat and Derek was stepping forward, “What do you need?”

“Step back!” Stiles was practically yelling as he felt the grenade shift just enough that the handle had changed pressure. It shifted just enough that he had exactly 5 seconds to get that thing airborne and far away from them. He ripped it all in one go then, no use worrying about the pressure and then he was turning away from the wolves and hurling the thing harder than he’d ever thrown anything before. He knew it wasn’t going to get far enough to get the werewolves out of the blast zone of the wolfsbane that they would then breathe in. “Run.”

They all turned simultaneously. Sprinting far and fast. Only Derek kept his eyes on Stiles long enough to realize that his eyes were rolling into the back of his head. He grabbed a hold of Stiles’ arm, yanking him forward in the hope that it’d keep him from passing out. It didn’t help, Stiles was on the ground a second later and Derek was falling on top of him, shielding him as they heard the explosion from somewhere far to close.

“Where’s Derek?” Cora shrieked, slamming to a stop when the explosion rang out. The others stopped around her, “And Stiles? Where are they?”

“We have to stay away; otherwise we’ll still be affected by the wolfsbane.” Peter said through gritted teeth, clearly only half believing that what he was saying was correct.

“We’ll be fine if we move fast. Derek is a lot closer. If we don’t get him out his lungs will stop due to the poison.” Cora said, “And who knows what’s wrong with Stiles. We need to get them out.”

A split second later Cora was sprinting back toward where they came from, pulling her shirt up over her mouth and nose as she ran, Jackson chasing after her just a few seconds later. Boyd and Danny looked at each other with a grim line of worry before they were doing the same and Peter was calling after them, “I’ll get the cars going.”

He wouldn’t have been any help anyway, his own injuries still hadn’t healed.

Cora and Jackson got there first and were rolling Derek off of Stiles, Jackson starting to pull him up as Cora did the same for Stiles, both of them already starting to cough. When Danny got there he went to help Stiles while Boyd went over to help with Derek and then they were moving forward, trying to keep their shirts over their noses while also trying to assess just what was wrong with the other two.

They made it to the cars and Danny and Cora were pushing Stiles into the backseat of the jeep, lying his limp body along the row before an only semi-conscious Derek was lunging toward the passenger seat and growling toward Peter, “Drive.”

Peter was pushing the pedal to the floor then and squealing away from the other four who were left to get into Jackson’s car and follow. “Where are we going?”

“Deaton’s. Something is wrong. It drained him. It was too much.”

Peter just nodded and they hit the main road, Peter driving like a maniac to the clinic before he glanced at Derek and asked, “Are you alright?”

“Fine.”

“Then text Scott, he’s going to be pissed if he’s not updated and Stiles will be pissed if you don’t tell him.” Peter informed him, “Stiles is okay. He’s breathing, his heart is relatively steady, it’ll be okay.”

They got to the clinic at almost the exact same time as the other car and Cora was shoving Derek out of the way when he went toward Stiles, “You’re still weak. Do you want to drop him?”

Danny and Jackson were pulling him out then, jostling just enough to make Derek growl at them which forced them to be considerably more careful. They got him in onto the table not a minute later and Deaton was giving them that look of annoyance he always did but then he was turning to Stiles who’s arm was hanging off one side of the table, the other slung across his stomach.

Derek was immediately on one side, grabbing his hand and squeezing it tight as the others backed up against the walls. Derek tossed Cora his phone and said, “Update Scott, and the rest of the pack.”

“Do you want them all to come here?”

“No. Just Scott, the rest can go to the house. You guys don’t have to stay either.”

Deaton was already poking and prodding at Stiles, tapping at his temple and then at his hands before moving to his chest. Derek was watching him with a careful eye as he talked to the others who were shaking their heads no; Danny telling him, “We’ll stay, at least until Scott gets here. You shouldn’t be alone.”

It was a testament to how out of it Derek was when he didn’t argue with that, just squeezed Stiles’ hand a little tighter. Deaton was looking concerned, and concerned wasn’t a good look. It made them all go quiet as they waited for him to say anything at all.

“It drained his magic.” Deaton sounded like he was a little bit in shock. “Whatever he had to do, it literally took all his magic supply out of him.”

“Forever? Or just temporarily and it’ll come back again?” Peter asked.

“I think it’ll come back. But if it went so far as to hurt him further than just drain the magic, that chance diminishes significantly. This doesn’t happen, ever. To produce this sort of magic all at once causes physical effects that I don’t see on Stiles.”

“Is he going to be okay?” Derek asked.

“He’ll be okay. I assume he’ll be tired, he’ll be a little out of it, and he’ll probably feel a little hollowed out but he’ll be okay. It’d be like one of you losing your shifting powers, which means that he’s going to feel vulnerable and he’s going to feel like a part of him is missing until it gets enough strength to come back and become usable. So I’m telling you, be considerate.”

Stiles woke up slowly, like he was swimming to the top of a dark lake and when he broke surface he was sitting up in one fast motion. He knew he was at the clinic, he could feel the metal he was sitting on and he could hear the barking of the dogs in the back room. His head flipped toward the door as it opened and he saw Scott walking in and coming straight for him. He felt Derek’s hand on his shoulder pushing him down and muttering something about him calming down.

“Stiles, what happened?” Scott asked. He looked to Peter quick, checking to see if he was okay before he was looking back down at Stiles, “Why do you seem different?”

Deaton cleared his throat a little bit, glancing to Derek who was staring down at Stiles who was making eye contact with Scott. Then he turned to look at Derek and was just staring him as well. It made Derek cringe a little on the inside because this is what he hated about having authority, the fact that he had to give the bad news as well as the good.

Just as Derek was about to speak up, Stiles did. “I don’t have my magic. It drained my magic. It might not come back. No one’s sure.”

“How’d you know?” Deaton asked.

“I knew it when I was doing it. I knew it was too much. It went better than expected.”

“This is better than expected?!” Derek snapped, making Stiles turn to look at him, “You could’ve died! This wasn’t okay, none of this was okay.”

Stiles pulled his hand from Derek’s and moved it to rest on his shoulder, giving it a squeeze, “It’s okay, I’m okay. We’re all alive. That’s what matters. Let’s leave. Deaton can’t do anything for me right now.”

No one really knew what to say, no one knew if he was actually okay. Deaton just shrugged as Stiles scooted himself down off the table, his hand going back to latching with Derek’s and pulling him forward, leading the way out. When it took the rest of them a while to follow he paused in his steps but didn’t look back, “I’m fine.” 

The two of them got in the Jeep, Derek taking the driver’s seat as Stiles shuffled into the passenger. Just as he was about to shut the door Scott was jumping into the backseat, throwing his own keys back to the others and telling one of them to take it to Scott’s.

“Scott, I’m okay. You don’t need to monitor me.”

“Deaton said it’s like losing the shift.” Scott said, buckling up as Derek started the car. “Like losing a part of you. You’re not okay. And now it’s just Derek and I so tell us how you actually are.”

Derek had reconnected their hands again and gave him a brief glance as Stiles gnawed on his other hand’s fingernails. “Cold, it feels cold. It feels like the magic was part of my blood and it was keeping me warm. Now, it feels like I’m running on fumes.”

Scott squeezed his shoulder, not knowing what was right to say before he was sitting back against the seat again. Derek had that worried crease in his brow as his thumb started to move back and forth on Stiles’ hand. Stiles had turned his head to look out the window, resting his forehead against the glass but he kept his grip firm the whole way to the house.

“I’m not telling anyone. I don’t want to explain it. One of you guys can.”

Scott and Derek’s eyes met in the rearview mirror and Scott gave a little nod, “I’ll do it. But, it’s not bad. It’s not gone forever. We’ll figure out how to help you get it back.”

“It feels like it’s gone forever.”

“Peter won’t stop until he finds out how to help you.” Derek says, “He doesn’t want to owe people, and right now I bet he feels in a world of debt for you so he won’t stop until he figures out a way to get you your magic back. It’ll be okay.” 

Stiles looked over to him, checking to see if he was lying. He seemed satisfied and relaxed just a fraction as they pulled into the driveway of the house. Derek killed the engine and they all sat there for just a little bit, bracing themselves for the rest of the pack that was already there and probably in a relatively festive mood all things considered.

“Don’t tell them today.” Stiles murmured, “We can just be happy that everyone’s okay today.”

“You’re not okay though.” Scott says, “We can’t just lie to them. They’d want to know.”

“I’m fine. I’m empty but I’m fine. A glass isn’t broken because there isn’t any water in it.” Stiles snaps, turning to look at Scott with more emotion than he’d had since the incident, “Just, please, let everyone be happy. And tell the others that were there to not say anything either.”

He wanted to argue, both Stiles and Derek could see it, but then he set his mouth in a firm line and gave a quick nod. “Just because that’s what you want. We tell them tomorrow though. Lydia will hate to be left in the dark for even that long.”

Stiles gave him a thankful look and then straightened his back up and stepped out of the car. Giving the car that had just pulled up a smile and a tap on the hood. It took the other two a little bit longer to get out of the car and just before Derek opened the door Scott grabbed his arm, “He’s not fine.”

“I know. We’ll figure it out. Let him fake it for now. He won’t be alone, nothing will happen to him. He needs his best friend right now so just be that for him.” 

Scott gives him another nod and tells him, “He needs his mate too.”

“Good thing we’re both here then. Let’s go.” Derek then climbs out of the car, jogging a bit to catch up to Stiles who was waiting on the porch, grabbing his hand before walking inside and waiting for everyone to want to hear the story of what happened. And Derek was waiting to see if Stiles was okay enough to lie in a room full of werewolves.

Scott runs interference every time someone gets a little too close to figuring out that he’s not fine, he gets their focus shifted. Derek doesn’t leave his side the entire night. He’s fine with the others believing it’s purely because of the grenade. For tonight, they’d fake it until they made it.


	18. Buried Alive (Jackson)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No one spoke up for a second, then Liam was speaking up, “Out of sight out of mind.”
> 
> “What?” Peter asked.
> 
> “They’re somewhere out of sight, but close.” Liam said. “They couldn’t have moved them far so they hid them somewhere close.”
> 
> Another pause and then Isaac was gasping and dropping to his knees, “Underground. They’re buried. The witches buried them.”

“Let me talk to him.”

“He doesn’t want to talk to anyone.” Scott mumbles into his hands, face down while his elbows rested on his knees. He was sitting on the couch looking all too dejected. Isaac was on one side of him with Malia sitting on the other. Erica, Boyd, and Cora were on the other couch. Jackson was pacing the room in front of them. “Why would you be any exception Jackson? You two just got on friend terms not too long ago.”

“Just, trust me on this Scott. I know what it feels like to lose power. Okay?”

They all looked at him then, staying quiet until Scott sighed and finally looked up too, “Okay, go ahead, Derek might try and maul you when you get in there but you can give it a shot.”

Jackson was immediately heading up the stairs and slowly opening the door to Derek’s (and Stiles’ at this point) bedroom. They were sitting on the bed with their backs up against the headboard and the TV flipped on low in front of them. Derek’s arm was around Stiles’ shoulders and Stiles was resting his head on Derek’s. He was completely zoned out, and apparently had been for the past couple of days from what Scott had said. After they’d celebrated the night Peter had been caught and subsequently freed, Stiles had been on a high for all of the next twelve hours. Then, the following morning, he crashed and hadn’t come back up since.

Derek looked up once the door opened but Stiles was still staring blankly at the TV without actually registering what he was seeing from what Jackson could tell. Derek glared and was about to speak up when Jackson’s hand went up to stop him from speaking, “Let me talk to him Derek. Just give me a minute with him.”

“He doesn’t need that right now.” Derek sounded exhausted, he sounded like he was going to pass out then and there because he was the one who’d been up for the past three days trying to make sure Stiles was alright.

“Derek. Trust me. I’m asking you to just give me the benefit of the doubt right now, you need to get out of this room for a minute and let’s be honest, I’m not going to freak him out any more than he already is. Just give me a minute.”

Derek’s hold tightened for a fraction of a second and Jackson thought he was going to yell but then he was sighing, just like Scott had, and moving his arm. He made sure Stiles didn’t fall to the side or hit his head but then he was standing up and taking a few steps over to Jackson. He paused and glanced back at Stiles before saying, “Just, be careful.”

“He’s not a doll Derek, he’s okay. He just needs to realize that. I can help him.” Jackson promised.

Derek walked out of the room then and Jackson heard him go down the stairs and into the kitchen. He was putzing around for a few seconds before he was mumbling to Scott about one thing or another. That got Jackson to focus on Stiles in front of him instead and he was taking Derek’s spot, just with a lot less touching.

“Stiles, I know you’re in there and you can hear me. So listen.” Stiles didn’t move but his eyes looked just a little bit clearer so Jackson kept talking, “I know what it feels like. To lose the power you’d come to rely on. I know that it sucks and it feels like everything is spinning out of control but you’ve got an entire pack here to help you through that, to help you get that power back. I didn’t have that, remember? I went bat shit crazy as you put it.”

Stiles was moving a little bit now, his hands twitching together just enough to show he was somewhat back into himself. Jackson had pretty much run out of things to say but it seemed like Stiles was responding so he started babbling like Stiles was so fond of doing himself.

“You know we’re here for you. You guys saved me and we all intend to do the same for you. First off, you really don’t need saving. You can do more without magic than most people can do with magic and I know that you can’t help how hollow you feel, but you can’t let it control you or you’ll lose everything. If you let it get to you there’s no way for your magic to come back, you need a spark, that spark you’ve always had. That’s what will get it back, not this wallowing in self-pity.”

“It’s not pity.” Stiles mumbled. His voice cracked and his throat sounded scratchy but he was speaking and that got Jackson happier than he was willing to admit.

“Then what is it Stiles? Because as far as I can tell it’s either pity or depression and if it’s depression then we can’t help you.” 

“It’s not any of that.” Stiles said, his voice raising a little bit, “I just. I can’t feel anything. I’m so cold all of the time. I feel like it’s just constantly draining me, it’s not getting better, it’s just still getting worse.”

Jackson processed for a little bit and scooted right up next to Stiles, pulling him a little closer and then mimicking what Derek had been doing earlier. Stiles tensed up and looked at him like he was crazy and Jackson rolled his eyes before saying, “You need pack. I think that’s it. You need to be aware that you have people around you that care for you and your magic is aware of that as well. Isolating yourself is what’s draining you. You’re alone and weak and that’s what is making it worse. If any of us were injured and we went off on our own, our healing wouldn’t be as good as it is. It’s the same for you.”

Stiles was staring at him, his brows creased together in what looked like a mix of confusion and awe. “Thank you.”

Jackson smiled for just a minute before he was calling for the rest of the pack in the house. Derek was there first, of course, and he was climbing in on Stiles’ other side. Scott was a close second and he was lying across Stiles’ legs, head on Stiles’ stomach and he smiled up at him. Malia climbed in on Jackson’s other side.

“Pack is good. Pack piles are the best.” Malia said. Stiles was grateful for her, grateful that she wasn’t mentioning what it was for, that she wasn’t making it a big deal that Stiles was in the middle of the pile because he was the weak link right now.

Derek moved then, so he was behind Stiles and had him in the v of his legs with Stiles head against his right shoulder, the side Jackson was on. Scott had to adjust a little bit but did so without much complaint as Isaac crawled in on the opposite side of Jackson. Cora was half on top of him and half on the bed, running one hand through Isaac’s hair and then grabbing Stiles arm with the other. Erica and Boyd found spots on the bottom of the bed, Erica’s hand grabbing a hold of Stiles’ calf from where Scott was putting it to sleep.

“Turn up the TV.” Isaac said, “I hate watching moving screens.”

“We all know you can hear it fine.” Malia said, “Don’t complain.”

“Stiles can’t though.” Cora pointed out; she squeezed his arm as she spoke, “Little human hearing.”

Stiles didn’t say anything but nodded a little bit, watching Derek lift his hand to point the remote at the screen and cranking up the volume so they could watch whatever episode of Big Bang Theory was on at that point and time.

They watched for almost half the episode before Stiles spoke up, “I don’t get why everyone loves this show so much. Leonard is almost always subtly insulting, or letting someone else insult, Penny unless he’s sexualizing everything she does. Why is that something everyone finds so hilarious?”

“Stiles, just let the show be funny.” Erica complained, “You’re always dissecting the shows.”

“Because they need to be dissected.” Stiles says, “Why should we let insulting shows on TV when there’s good ones that we could be watching instead?”

“Is this your long winded way of wanting us to change the channel?” Scott asked, craning his neck to look up at Stiles’ face.

Stiles smiled just a little then, “Yeah, yeah it is. Isn’t there a movie marathon on somewhere? Usually a Harry Potter is on marathon on a channel or two.”

There was a collective groan but of course Derek was changing the channel, flipping through the channels rapidly until he landed on an episode of Game of Thrones. They all settled in a little bit more then and Derek was occasionally pressing his face into Stiles’ neck despite the annoyed groans of anyone who glanced and saw him doing anything of the sort. Stiles heard him mumble a thank you to Jackson.

Scott was happy. He felt content. The pack was around him, Stiles was more content then he’d been for half of a week, and they seemed to be working in harmony. Finally. As long as Stiles stayed as upbeat as he could, they would be alright.

The week went without a hitch. They managed to keep enough contact with Stiles to keep him upbeat and he went to Deaton two more times to see if he could figure anything out. He couldn’t. The hour or so after those visits he was in a rough state. Derek wouldn’t unlatch from him until he seemed well enough and the rest of the pack was constantly rubbing up against him as well. He had to admit it helped even though he was a little bitter the idea had come from Jackson.

He was still cold though, no matter how many layers he was wearing or how many pairs of socks he had covering his feet before he shoved them into boots or whatever footwear someone tossed to him. When they were out in the preserve, it seemed like someone was always shucking a coat for him to wear over the one or three he already had on. It was a bone deep cold too, not one that made his skin raise up in goosebumps but the kind that felt like he was just one big icicle that’d break if he fell too hard.

Two weeks after the Peter incident is when things went to shit yet again. 

Stiles and Jackson had been close since Jackson had pulled him out of whatever state he was in the week or so before. They’d been hanging out a little bit and while no one else really understood, they let it be because it seemed to make Jackson more tolerable and Stiles more himself. One day they were going to get the food for the pack and when they were over a half hour late, the pack got worried.

“Stiles isn’t answering.” Derek says, “His phone just rings through to voicemail.”

“Jackson isn’t either.” Malia responds, her phone up against her ear as she redials him for the third time.

The rest of the pack stood fiddling their thumbs together as they waited for the two alphas to come up with some plan. Scott was running a hand through his hair in frustration and Derek was typing out some long winded text to Stiles, probably just making sure that if he could read his phone but not answer it he’d know they knew they were late and in trouble.

“I guess we’re canvasing.” Scott says, glancing at Derek who continued to type.

“The town? Outside the town? Where?” Ethan asks.

“Derek!” Scott snaps, “Stop staring at your phone, we’ve got to figure out what to do.”

Derek glared up at him for a second before putting his phone to sleep and cracking his knuckles, “Right, canvasing.”

“Okay, we’re splitting up into groups of three.” Scott instructs, shifting his gaze from Derek to the rest of the pack, “Liam go with Malia and Danny.”

“Wait… why are you splitting us up like that?” Ethan asked, his hand holding Danny’s and looking at Scott confused.

“He’s right.” Lydia speaks up, “We have to be apart from our mates or partners. Otherwise if the witches catch us, cause we know this is them, they’ll have a pair. Derek and Erica, you need to keep us updated on if you feel anything. I know Boyd is still with us but if he gets caught, or you do, then the other will know if they’re being affected.”

“Stiles seems okay.” Derek says, “Cloudy but okay.”

“Jackson doesn’t.” Malia whispers, head facing down as her hands are clenched in fists at her side, “He… I don’t know but it’s off.”

“You guys have a mate bond?” Lydia asked, “Since when?”

“It’s been growing recently, we only really felt it a while ago. Actually, when he and Stiles started getting closer. We kind of figured it’s because he’s finally accepting himself so he could finally allow me to trust him. If that makes sense.” Malia was starting to stutter towards the end. She wasn’t really the one who came up with ideas or theories, that was Stiles and Lydia.

Lydia smiled at her though, looking genuinely happy, “I think you’re right. You tell us too then, if it changes or feels any worse. Liam and Danny will be with you.”

Malia thanked her quietly and scooted over next to the two guys who gave her a pat on the black in congratulations before quieting and letting Scott continue. Just as he was about to speak up, Allison let out a noise of what sounded like awe.

“What? What is it?” Scott asks.

“That’s what it is, what Malia just says. I don’t think they’re just trying to control pack bonds. They’re trying to fabricate mate ones. That’s what got Peter in the mess, they were trying to see if he could be tricked into having a bond with the witch.”

“Then why didn’t it work?” Cora says, looking to where Peter was standing quietly with a look of understanding passing over him.

“Because there has to be mutual trust. I mean, think about it. Derek never trusted anyone until Stiles saved his ass over and over again, and then all the times Derek returned the favor. They’re bond grew stronger and they grew closer. I think there has to be a foundation to begin with but that mutual almost dependency is what truly brings it to light. Derek and Stiles’ foundation is loss, and guilt of that loss. With the fire and Stiles’ mom both of them felt like they could’ve done something more but neither of them feel that the other should’ve, Stiles has told Derek that a thousand times and Derek has told him the same. Erica and Boyd have been mates almost from the beginning because right when they were turned they were forced into situations they never should’ve been in. They already had the foundation of feeling like outsiders, unneeded if you will, and so once they realized the other person would never see them as that it flourished. Malia and Jackson’s would be losing control to their shifted side, Jackson literally couldn’t control himself and Malia hadn’t had to for ages. Now they help each other keep control.”

“Allison, you’re brilliant.” Isaac gushed.

Allison blushed a little bit before Derek was shrugging his shoulders in what looked like an aggressive way, not that any of them knew that was a possibility until that moment, “As great as it is that we understand that, why does it matter right now? We’re still missing Stiles and Jackson.”

“They both have foundations, I assume Stiles and Boyd together or Boyd and Jackson together would’ve been captured too. They’re going to see if they can make the bond mesh sort of, make it so their foundations come together to make them mates even if they aren’t meant to be. It wouldn’t work if one of them wasn’t already mated.” Allison explains. “Does that make sense?”

“They’re trying to switch mates.” Lydia concluded.

“Why do they want to do that?” Derek was still a little lost, probably because he was only half focused on the conversation at hand and half focused on whatever parts of Stiles he could keep track of.

“Because if they switch the two of them, you and Malia will be without a mate and that’ll tear you apart. That’ll make you both go feral if we can’t control you well enough and that’ll make the entire pack bond shift and become weakened. Then they can work their way inside of that.” 

“When they would hit us with spells, they were looking to see if there was a bond present. That’s why they didn’t care about Liam, they were focused on Malia when they attacked the house. That’s why Boyd was in the circle in the woods with the witch the first time.” Peter joined in, moving forward, “And that’s why, if I would’ve had the fake mate bond with the witch, she could’ve then cut it off and I would’ve become feral without them actually having to deal with the bonds because they realized it was more difficult than they thought. But, since it didn’t work, they have to go back to the real thing.”

“But even if they can’t shift the bonds, they’ll try and break them. And why they never take Derek, because Stiles can’t go feral.” Scott says. 

“But he can go comatose. Like the draining of his magic. That was all part of the plan. Now, he’s trapped with Jackson with no way to combat their magic with his own and no way for his body to fight the magic that would attack there’s even without him having to do anything.” Isaac says.

Footsteps walked into the living room with them then and they all turned with a little bit of a start to see Deaton who was nodding to what he’d just heard, “I don’t think that’s all though. If they can tempt the side of him that’s dependent on the magic, they can do something to put their own magic into him. Dark magic from what I can tell. If dark magic takes over him then Derek will feel that too. I don’t know just what it’ll do but the part of Stiles that the spark relies on is the part that is loyal to his friends, his pack. If the dark magic invades, he might lose that side of him.”

“You’re saying he might break the bond by himself?” Derek asks, looking incredibly pale, “And then they’ll be no way for me to not go feral, because I’ll know he’s alive and I’ll either want to kill him or turn evil too to get him back.”

“And Jackson can go back to being controlled. If that happens, hunters will find reason to kill you all. That’s why that group was working with them.” Deaton extends, nodding again.

“There’s a lot more riding on this then we’d ever imagined.” Kira says, “We need to get moving.”

Scott shifts back into planning mode then, “Okay, Liam, Malia, and Danny are still a group. Aiden, Cora, and Boyd. Derek, me, and Allison. Ethan, Erica, and Peter. Kira, Isaac, and Lydia.”

They all took off together, sprinting in five different directions. Scott was studying Derek, trying to see just what he was thinking without running into a tree and Allison was huffing trying to keep up with the two wolves. A minute or so later Derek was screeching to a halt and the two flipped around to see what he was doing. He had a hand to his chest and was using the other to brace himself on his knee.

“No, no, no.” Allison mutters, putting a hand on Derek’s back and running the other through her hair, “What’s going on? What’s wrong?”

Derek’s eyes were shifting back and forth from red to natural, red to natural. His claws were digging into his leg and his chest. They were drawing blood and Scott was moving forward yanking them and holding them separately so he wouldn’t hurt himself anymore. “Derek! You have to talk to us! To save Stiles, you have to talk to us.”

“He’s… I don’t know. Close, they’re close. Fuck. Why does it hurt so bad? This isn’t right.”

“No. He’s okay.” Scott says, voice rising as he talks, “He’s fine. It’s Stiles, he’s always fine. I can’t lose him, we can’t lose him.”

\---

Liam ran into Malia, knocking them both down and making Danny turn to crouch by her side, “Malia. What’s wrong?”

“Jackson… he’s, in pain? He’s, I don’t know!”

“You’ve got to breathe.” Liam says, holding her up as they sat on the ground, “And you’ve got to feel him, you’ve got to do everything you can right now. See if you can pinpoint anything.”

“He’s my best friend.” Danny whispered, not talking to either of them, just to himself. It was like he hadn’t realized it before. Like he didn’t realize that this could happen and that Jackson actually could die and Danny could lose his very best friend.

Malia was hunched over then, her head resting on her knees and her stomach rolling as she fought the urge to throw up to the side. She rocked a little, back and forth, as Liam’s hand moved up and down her back, trying to comfort her the little bit he could. Liam’s eyes were on Danny though; Danny who was completely zoned out and staring at the ground like he could crawl into it and never come out.

\--- 

“Jackson…” Stiles gasped out, “You’ve got to breathe through it. Focus on me, not on them. Please, Jackson. Think about Malia, and Danny, and the whole pack.”

Jackson craned his neck to the left. Both he and Stiles were on the ground, flat on their backs. Stiles face was turned to him and Jackson held onto that eye contact as he felt like an elephant was standing on his chest. He took in one gasping breath.

“Good, good. It’s in your head, they’re in your head. You’re okay. You’ve got to fight through it. What they’re making happen to you, what they’re making you feel, is what Derek and Malia think is happening to us.”

“It still fucking hurts Stiles.” Jackson growls towards him.

“Yes, little boys, yes! Let the pain take over you! It’s okay! As soon as you stop fighting it it’ll be gone.” There were four witches there, standing around them and smiling down while occasionally putting their hands up to shoot another spell.

“What do you want from us!?” Stiles yelled, feeling like his vertebrae were being shifted back and forth. His back arched off the ground and his eyes squeezed shut as he tried to hold in a scream as well as he could.

“You give up, your mates will think you’ve died. They go feral and attack the rest of your pack. Then you’re under our control. You’ll basically be puppets. Then, when the pack comes to attack us and we put you at the front lines, they’ll be so taken aback that you’re alive we can kill them!”

A vicious twist in the muscles of Stiles’ legs had them flinging out and slamming back down hard against the ground. He kept his eyes trained on the sky above him, focusing on the trees and the blue that was a level above that. He wasn’t going to let this happen. He felt a hand reaching out and catching his wrist, he grabbed a hold of the hand, gripping it as hard as he could.

“Why us?” Jackson asked, a brief break from the pain allowing him to catch his breath.

He could see one of the witches looking at him like she was confused, her head tilting to one side before she said, “Why not?”

Stiles and Jackson looked at each other, eyebrows creased together until they were both getting what felt like flames flashing through the brains. Stiles let out a sob as Jackson ground his fingers into the ground on either side of him. “This is for fun. This isn’t even because of who we are.”

Jackson sounded wrecked. He sounded like he’d been swallowing hot coals periodically for days and Stiles wanted to reach out and force ice water down his throat. But instead the witches were all lifting their hands up and then dropping them to their sides in unison.

It felt like the world was crumbling around them, on top of them, and crushing them.

\--- 

“We need to move.” Allison says, trying to pull Derek off, “We need to find them.”

Scott could tell she was barely staving off panic attack, he hardly was either, and he was probably worse off than her. Derek was completely out of it. He was still hunched over with Scott’s hands keeping his from clawing their way into his body.

“He can’t Allison. He literally can’t move, whatever is happening has completely incapacitated him. Call another group to come help us.” Scott instructs. “And figure out if Malia is going through the same thing.”

Allison nodded and started dialing her phone, keeping her eyes trained on the two of them and mumbling into the mouthpiece as she talked to Liam. Liam who assured her that the exact same thing was happening to Malia. Allison told them to get another groups help and keep searching, get someone to carry Malia if that’s what they have to do.

“We’ll call Ethan, Erica, and Peter to help.” Liam decides, “You call Aiden, Boyd, and Cora. I’ll update the other group.”

“Got it.” Allison agrees. Then she’s calling Cora and telling him where they were, and telling them to get there as fast as they could.

\--- 

“I’ve got her.” Ethan says, scooping Malia up, her hands wrap around his neck and squeeze just a little too tight as they clasp together and shake. “Let’s go. We’re going to find them.”

Danny finally looked up then, looking at Ethan who gave him a sad smile and a nod. Danny took a deep breath and nodded back, “We can do this. We can find them.”

\--- 

Boyd and Aiden got on either side of Derek, pulling him up and not saying a thing when his claws dug into their shoulders. Scott was filling in Cora on whatever he could figure out and then started moving again, the others all trailing behind.

\--- 

“We’re so close!” A witch stage whispered to the one next to her, stepping a little closer so she was looking straight down at Stiles. Another witch mirrored her stance, looking over Jackson. The one over Stiles lifted a hand, well two fingers of her hand and then flicked them down. 

Stiles hands wanted to fly up, to stop the feeling of needles shooting into his eyes, but she had a foot stepping on his free wrist and the other was still being held in Jackson’s painful grasp. Jackson, who the witch was focusing a twitching hand all the way over his body, hovering it over him. He felt like snakes were burrowing into him, biting through his skin and muscles and then wrapping its way through him.

“Stop! Please! Stop!” Jackson called out.

Stiles focused all the energy he could on opening his eyes and looking at Jackson, his hand squeezing back as he said, “No, Jackson. They’ll be here soon. It’ll be okay. Please, just hold on.”

“I can’t Stiles…” Stiles had never seen him cry, never thought it was a possibility. When Jackson was hurt he got angry, when he was sick, he got angry, he didn’t cry. Jackson didn’t cry.

“Want to call it?” The witch asked, squatting down so she was just an inch from Jackson’s face, “Want to give up?”

Jackson was grinding his teeth together and Stiles spoke up, “No, think about Malia. You don’t want Malia to feel like she’s lost you. That’s the worst pain, to lose your mate. You’ll lose yourself again, the control that you need. It’s okay. We can do it.”

Jackson managed the shortest and smallest nod Stiles had ever seen but he kept his mouth shut, annoying the witches to almost no end. Stiles was positive they were going to do something new, start some other unbearable pain, but then they were all standing ramrod straight and just listening.

“Bury them.” The leader said, she was a few feet away, “It’ll take the wolves longer to find them, if it doesn’t kill them that is. We need to run.”

Stiles and Jackson locked panicked stares and then watched as the witches made a parting motion with their hands. And the ground literally fell from beneath them. Both of them clutched each other’s hand a little harder, to keep from being separated as dirt started to fall over top of them. They had to be at least four feet down. The pain still hadn’t stopped either. The witches would half to be at least a mile away before they’d stop feeling the pain. That meant they couldn’t fight their way out of the hole. That meant they just might suffocate and die after all.

Just before the dirt would’ve gotten to heavy, Stiles was rolling over and positioning himself so he was hovering over Jackson’s head, blocking the dirt from falling on his face and hunching his head so most of it stayed off of him too. “We’re going to be okay.”

“Nice try.” Jackson smirked, grimacing as the pain sparked again, “They still have to dig down this far to find us. And I don’t think I’m going to be conscious a lot longer.”

“The only reason the witches would’ve ran…” Stiles said, taking a second to gasp for air and then coughing when a little bit of dirt got into his lungs, “Is because they’re close. They can find us. They always find us.”

\--- 

“They should be here.” Derek said, down on his knees again as the rest of the pack stood around, “They have to be here. Malia?”

“I agree. They should be here.” Malia says, still holding onto Ethan. 

Both of them were pale, both of them looked like they were just a second away from passing out, and neither of them looked like they had a whole lot of hope. No one else really knew what to do, both alphas were out of it, both of the missing pack members’ mates were out of it, and there was no sign of Stiles or Jackson.

“Think. What would they do?” Erica asked, “How would they hide them and get away so quickly?”

No one spoke up for a second, then Liam was speaking up, “Out of sight out of mind.”

“What?” Peter asked.

“They’re somewhere out of sight, but close.” Liam said. “They couldn’t have moved them far so they hid them somewhere close.”

Another pause and then Isaac was gasping and dropping to his knees, “Underground. They’re buried. The witches buried them.”

All the pack, aside from Derek and Malia, were digging then. They were frantic and inefficient but with the amount of them they were scratching someone’s back just a couple minutes later. Scott was grabbing the first person under the armpits.

“Stiles…” Scott breathed out, pulling him on his back and up next to Derek who was practically on top of him half a second later.

Boyd was pulling out Jackson then, and lying him next to Malia who let out a little whimper before curling up into his side and patting his face a little, “Wake up, please, wake up.”

“Derek…” Kira says, one hand resting on Scott’s back as they both lean over Derek and Stiles. Derek doesn’t acknowledge her in the slightest so she calls his name a little louder. When he finally looks up she grimaces at the state of him, “He’s not breathing.”

That got Danny looking down a little harder at Jackson, “He’s not either. There wasn’t enough oxygen down there. They suffocated.”

“Move.” Allison snaps at Danny, being a little gentler when she moves Malia away and then pushing down on Jackson’s chest, starting compressions. She did what she’d been taught; the CPR that she’d read about, practiced, and perfected.

Scott was mimicking her actions on Stiles, flashing eyes at Derek when he growled something about Scott hurting him. Scott glared at Derek, “I’m saving him.”

At an almost comically exact same time, they were both coughing, leaning over on their sides with help from whichever half of the pack was circling around them. Spit and dirt flew out of both their mouths and when they finally caught their breaths, they were falling on their backs again.

The rest of the pack seemed to back off then; Derek remaining over Stiles and Malia over Jackson. Both had their entire faces practically shoved into their mates’ necks and were on top of them without actually putting any weight on them.

“I thought you were dead.” Derek breathed into his ear, “I thought I lost you.”

“I’m okay.” Stiles promises, “Can we get out of here? Please? I want to leave.”

“Of course, of course.” Derek says, immediately hopping up and gently pulling Stiles with him, “Do you want to talk about what happened?”

“No.”

Derek didn’t say anything, just studied him and wrapped an arm around him, “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

Stiles glanced over and saw Jackson slowly getting to his feet, Malia holding tightly onto his arm and never letting her eyes stray from his face, “Thank God you’re okay.”

Once they got back to the pack house, it was a heavy quiet all around. No one really wanted to stray too far from their couples, even though both Danny and Scott were sending glances at their best friends every three of four seconds.

Stiles and Jackson were suspiciously quiet, they weren’t talking and they weren’t losing contact with Derek and Malia respectively. Derek had sat down in the corner of one couch, one leg resting against the back rest while the other rested on the floor. Stiles was sitting in between his legs, leaning against his chest and letting his head rest against his shoulder. Derek hooked his chin on Stiles’ shoulder as well and wrapped his arms around Stiles’ torso.

Jackson was lying against the backrest of the couch, his back pressed firmly along it and letting his head rest on the armrest. Malia was pressed along him, her back to his chest as his arm draped over her stomach and hers was laying on top of his, intertwining their fingers. She could feel that his heart was running abnormally fast, and he knew that she was holding on just a little too tight, but neither of them said anything.

“Are you guys going to tell us anything about what happened?” Lydia asked, walking back into the room and trying not to act like she was incredibly concerned. 

“We were buried alive Lydia.” Jackson muttered, pressing himself impossibly closer to Malia, “We don’t want to talk about it.”

Lydia seemed to accept that and nodded her head a little, looking down at the floor before saying, “We’re going to leave, the rest of the pack. Isaac and Cora are staying with Erica and Boyd, having a movie marathon or something. Peter is off drinking for the taste I guess because he obviously can’t get drunk. I think he’s actually just trying to get over the witch. You four need a little while to recuperate so we’ll be back tomorrow afternoon. Please, call if you need anything at all.”

None of them said anything but Stiles looked like he’d relaxed just a little bit which proved that Lydia had made the right choice. So, then she went to tell everyone else what they were supposed to do. Danny and Scott were most difficult to convince, saying that they shouldn’t be leaving their best friend in this state. Cora was a close second thinking that the family needed to stay together but, with a little help from Kira and Ethan, the best friends agreed to it and Isaac got Cora on board soon after that.

Once they were gone, Stiles was choking back a sob and then turning around and wrapping himself around Derek like he was never going to see again. Malia was turning on her back so Jackson’s face was right next to hers and their foreheads were pressing together. 

Derek wrapped his arms tight around Stiles, one arm around his shoulder blades while the other was pressing on the back of Stiles’ head, keeping him as close as he could. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“I want to forget it.” Stiles mumbles into his neck, “I never want to think about it.”

“We should tell them.” Jackson pipes up, “They should know what the witches were doing. You know the pack will make us tell. It’ll be easier to just tell these two and then let them tell everyone else.”

Stiles groans but sits back a little, having to use some strength to get Derek to let go. They adjust enough that Derek has both feet planted on the ground and Stiles is basically melted into his side. Jackson and Malia do the same, both shifting so they’re sitting up but Malia’s hand is carding through Jackson’s hair and her free hand is clasping his tightly.

Then they take turns telling them what the witches had said. How they were trying to break them enough to break the bond and turn them into a weapon. They told them that the witches hadn’t chosen them for any particular reason, purely that they wanted to. And then they had to tell them that the witches were inflicting pain on them that wouldn’t leave any marks, inflicting pain that made both of them shudder just thinking about it.

“They tortured you but didn’t want to leave any marks.” Derek says, looking between Jackson and Stiles, “They used pain spells.”

Stiles nodded, his hand going to press on the bruise circling the wrist Jackson had been holding onto briefly. He rolled his shoulders a little bit then too, trying to shake it off, get his bearings again but it just seemed to bring it all back down on him again and he was shrinking more into Derek’s side.

“Does that matter?” Malia asked. “That it was pain spells?”

“Yeah, that’s dark magic. Strong dark magic. That kind of magic leaves a pretty significant trace, one that can be followed. Also, it’s the kind of magic that can’t be forgiven.” Derek explains.

“Can we please not talk about that now?” Stiles asks, “I just don’t want to think about it.”

“Right, of course.” Malia says, “You two should eat something and rest.”

She starts to get up, to head to the kitchen to hopefully find leftovers in the fridge. Cooking wasn’t exactly her strong suit and Derek didn’t look like he’d be getting up any time soon to make something. But, as soon as she starts to break contact Jackson is reaching his hand out faster than Derek had ever seen him move, grabbing her hand and then looking up at her like a kicked puppy.

“It’s okay, I’ll be right back.” Malia promises, leaning down to kiss him a little.

That’s when it really freaks Derek out because when she’s no longer touching him at all he is collapsing in on himself and making pained noises. Malia is immediately dropping back down next to him, grabbing a hold of his hand and looking confused at Derek and Stiles who were sitting up and watching them intently.

Then Stiles glances at Derek before moving away from him as well, getting to the point that they weren’t touching at all and then going through the exact same thing Jackson had. Derek grunted as he moved over to him, pulling Stiles back against him in two seconds flat. “What the hell is going on with that?”

“It’s the leftover magic I bet.” Stiles says, taking a few deep breaths in, “I figure they managed to leave one last spell on us that’ll probably last a week or so from how much magic they’d already used.”

“And what exactly was that spell?” Jackson asks.

“That if we lose contact with our mate, we feel the pain they were making us feel when we were there.” Stiles explains.

“A week of this?” Jackson asks.

“I’d guess. They used up a lot of their energy and unless they wanted to be drained,” Derek tightens his hold a little bit when he says that. Stiles still wasn’t quite over the loss of his magic and as many times as Deaton assured him it was likely to come back, Stiles was believing it less and less, “They would have to ration their use. From what I could tell, they all only had a little bit left so if they split up, two to each of us, and used as much as they could safely use with this spell, I bet a week max.”

It was another quiet moment as they tried to figure out just what they were supposed to do. Malia was the one to get them all to smile a little when she says, “What a tragic outcome, I have to cuddle up to this incredibly attractive man for hours on end.”

“I think I’m ready to rest.” Stiles says, facing Derek for a second. Derek nods, standing slowly and keeping one hand on Stiles as he does so. “Please, I just want to sleep.”

Malia pulls Jackson after her, going slowly as she leads him up to one of the bedrooms and then wraps around him in the bed. Jackson takes a few minutes to just breathe once they’re lying down and Malia rests her head on his chest and taps out a rhythm on his stomach with her fingers, then she promises, “It’s going to be okay.”  
Derek and Stiles are tucked under the covers a little bit later too. Stiles is working through little panic attacks when they finally get alone but they’re mild enough that Derek lets him work through them alone, knowing that he’ll just get frustrated if Derek tries to help. When his heartrate goes up for the fourth time, though, Derek forces Stiles to make eye contact.

“We’re going to get through this.” Derek promises, “Your magic is going to come back, we’re going to get through this week of constant contact, and we’re going to be happy again. I know you feel drained and you’re in pain, and I know that you don’t want me to say this because you think it’s false hope but Deaton’s been calling everyone he can to help you and if you really don’t want to be touching me for a while then I think we’ve got other problems.”

Stiles smirks a little at that and then tells him, “I feel like I need to throw up, all the time, except there’s nothing in me to throw up. And I’m still cold, I mean better than before you guys all figured it out, but I’m still cold and I can’t… I just can’t deal with all of this.”

“Stiles, you saved Jackson’s life. You kept the both of you from suffocating. You saved our lives by not giving in, by dealing with immeasurable pain. You shouldn’t have to deal with anything ever again, but you know you’re going to have to so you have to let us help you.”

He stays quiet for a moment, letting Stiles take it in and then asks, “Do you want me to tell the pack to come back? I’ll explain everything to them, you don’t have to say anything.”

“Tomorrow.” Stiles says, “I just want to sleep.”


	19. Building Trust (General Pack Love)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I hate to interrupt…” Derek starts, making the two of them turn to look at him instead of each other, “But I think you should be doing the hug thing while you talk about stuff like this.”
> 
> Stiles nodded and then Isaac was moving back against the headboard, imitating Derek’s posture slightly before he said, “I don’t hug very well unless it’s Cora. But I’ve been told I’m pretty good at spooning.”

When the rest of the pack gets there the next day, and the two couples come down, Kira is the one to finally ask, “What do we do?”

Derek explains everything, the pack takes it all in, and then Cora is standing up from the couch and looking over at Stiles, “Well, good news first, I think I found out how to help with your magic.” Everyone looks surprised at that and she rolls her eyes, “I can think of solutions too.”

“Don’t give me false hope.” Stiles says.

Scott rests a hand on his leg and nods a little bit in agreement, because Stiles is looking more and more like the person he’d been right after his magic had completely disappeared. He looked tired and drained and in pain every time Derek so much as shifted in his seat, like the idea of the pain that could happen was so bad he was feeling it already.

“You all have such little confidence in me.” Cora complains, “I do have full faith in this. But it’s a little weird and the situation we’re in is going to make it even harder than it would be otherwise.”

“What is it Cora?” Allison asks.

“It’s… it’s not anything physical. I think that since it didn’t harm you physically that means that we can’t get it back by physical means. So, that means it’s being blocked by other things. By things like Stiles refusal to believe he’s as important as he is, by the lack of faith that we all used to have in each other that is still in the back of his mind, and because we all have such different sorts of connections as it is.”

“Please get to the point.” Stiles says.

“You have to make that connection with everyone.” Cora says, “Like a trust fall except, you know, more real and stronger. You have that with Scott and Derek, and to a certain level with each of us, but that’s not enough. The amount of trust you have in them, while different, is what makes your spark your spark. That’s why it didn’t hurt you physically, because that trust never wavered, but the trust in the rest of us did, even on some subconscious level.”

“No…” Stiles denies, “I… I trust you all.”

“Stiles, we’re not insulted.” Cora promises, “It’s not necessarily something you choose.”

“How do I gain that trust in people then? If it’s not voluntary. Because if it were voluntary, you know I’d already be doing it.”

Cora stutters a bit, mumbles something, looks at anything except Stiles and just generally avoids the situation until Derek is snapping at her, “Speak up Cora! We don’t have forever.”

“Hugs!” She blurts out.

Every single face looked annoyed, they look like the idea is the stupidest thing in the entire world and then Stiles lets out a loud, short laugh, “Hugs? Are you serious? You can’t be serious!”

“Don’t patronize me Stiles!” Cora snaps, “If I were Lydia saying this, you’d agree right away, or if I were Scott. What makes you think that I haven’t been busting my ass trying to save your just as much as they have?”

Stiles eyes widened in shock, glancing to Derek who was smirking a little bit. Stiles glared to him and then cleared his throat a little bit, “I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m sorry. I just, you know… don’t really hug.”

“Really?” Cora asks, gesturing to his current position of being wrapped around Derek.

Stiles gives her another look then, one that asks ‘are you kidding me’ before he vocalizes it and reminds her, “You know, this is so I don’t feel excruciating pain.”

She looks a little bit apologetic then but forces her face back to neutral. “Would you like me to solve one of your problems for you then?”

“Please.” Stiles says, pasting on the happiest smile he could.

“Well, it’s literally just hugging the pack. Hug each of us and you’ll end up feeling it when the bond kind of clicks into place, when you really feel the trust or whatever. I think…”

“You think?” Scott asks, “That doesn’t seem very certain.”

“I mean, it’s not an exact science.” Cora says, “You have to take it seriously, not act defensive like you sometimes tend to be. Then, when your magic comes back, it should counteract whatever the spell is that’s hurting you and Jackson. So there, I’ve actually solved both of your problems.”

Stiles looks like he’s filled with hope for just a little bit, and then he deflates halfway and asks, “What’s the catch? There’s got to be some sort of catch.”

Cora shrugs a little, “I guess the catch is everyone has to be willing to hug you. Also, you have to do it all in one go, like hug the person until it works because otherwise it’ll be more like breaking trust. I don’t know what you’re supposed to expect either, when it happens or throughout. Deaton said he’d come around and help out, apparently there’s some sort of spell that can loosen you up. Although that’s probably not the best way to put it… it’s a spell that’ll make you more vulnerable to each other essentially.”

“Call him.” Stiles says, “Let’s do this.”

Deaton informed them that he actually did have a real job, some patients he had to see and take care of, so he wouldn’t be around until after lunch. That allowed them all time to get their own good lunch which was fortunately concocted by Derek, Allison, Peter, and Isaac who casually whipped up some extravagant chicken/spaghetti meal to feed the entire pack. It made it a little crowded as well with Stiles constantly having to be around Derek, he usually managed to do it with just a hand on the shoulder but at one point someone had stumbled into him, knocking his hand off of Derek and he was immediately curling up on the ground. 

That resulted in Derek dropping down faster than lightning to grab a hold of any part of Stiles he could while the rest of them were watching in pained fascination. As soon as they were in contact again, Stiles was calm and taking a couple seconds to gather himself before the two of them were standing up again. “It doesn’t seem to be wearing off.”

“I don’t think it’s mean to wear off.” Stiles says, “I think it’s meant to last as strong as it has initially but it’ll end. So, by the end of the week we shouldn’t feel anything at all.”

Derek wasn’t exactly pleased with the situation but he moved on in order to finish up what he could of the lunch before moving both he and Stiles over to sit by Jackson and Malia. They asked if Jackson had had any other episodes, accidental at night or anything of the sort, and he nodded a little bit, “Malia doesn’t like people hearing her pee, letting alone being in the bathroom with her at the same time. We tried to stretch out so I was on the other side of the door kind of but we ended up losing contact for just a second. It felt just as bad as the first time.”

When Deaton came in a while later, he was immediately meeting up with Cora who was absolutely beaming with excitement because this was her plan. And she never got credit for the plans, it was always someone else who was the brain and no one ever considered her the brawn either. So, she was going to milk this for all it was worth.

“Okay Stiles, I know you’re basically attached to Derek now so that makes this a little more difficult to do. We don’t even know if it will work for sure, because if he’s still touching you then you aren’t focusing entirely on the person you’re supposed to start trusting.”

“He’s not going through pain just to start trusting people.” Derek snaps immediately.

“Wait… no.” Stiles says, shushing Derek when he goes to argue, “That might help. I mean, Derek should still be close just in case but I think that the pain might break down that barrier, you know?”

“It’s not worth it!” Derek says.

“If he wants to do it like that then he can!” Cora says over top of him.

“Please.” Derek whispers to him, “I don’t want to watch you in pain.”

Stiles looks torn then and glances between Deaton and Cora. He sets his mouth in a line as he thinks before telling Derek, “You’ll be close. We can try it with you still holding onto me but if it doesn’t work then we should try it without you touching me. I can handle it Derek. I’ve done it before.”

“Fine.” Derek says, barely managing to not snarl the world before he says, “But you take a break between every person. And tell us if it gets too hard.”

“Of course.” Stiles promises, squeezing Derek’s hand and then moving forward to kiss him on the cheek, “Let’s get started.”

“We should start with whoever you think you’re closest to bonding with.” Cora says, “And we don’t have to tell any others that’s the order if you don’t want to but I think that it’ll build up resistance the more people that you have. You know?”

“Yeah, that makes sense.” Stiles agrees. “But Derek and Scott are set already?”

“From what we assume.” Deaton nods, “I mean you could always check, that wouldn’t do any harm. If anything maybe that will tell you what it’s supposed to feel like.”

“Okay.” Stiles says, “Then Derek and I are going to go upstairs and hug it out for a little while. And then Scott, then I’ll figure out who should come up. Deaton, did you have something you were going to do to help me out with this?”

“I think the pain thing is better than anything I could concoct.” Deaton admits, “Although probably not quite as pleasant. I’ll stay around though, the magic concerns me a bit, like when it’ll come back and how you’ll handle it. Not that I don’t have full faith in your abilities, you’ve been without them for a while.”

“Remember Stiles, it’s not who you like the most that you trust the most; it’s the person that you don’t doubt would come save you, the one who you know would show up. So even though you like Allison quite a bit, I know you don’t trust her as much as you do Peter in the long run.”

Stiles studies Cora a little bit, “Cora, I’ve underestimated you. And I’m not sure how I feel about you knowing that, please don’t tell Allison. It’s just… that rogue hunter phase she had, the whole willing to kill me thing kind of stuck with me.”

“I know.” Cora smiles, “And yeah, you have underestimated me. It’s okay though. It’s okay to be the dark horse in the situation too.”

Derek and Stiles were up in the room a little bit later and Stiles was laying on top of Derek, chest to chest and his head resting on Derek’s chest. He had his chin resting there, so he could look up and see Derek’s jawline and stubble and he smiled a little, “Derek?”

“Yeah Stiles.”

“I’m glad you’re my mate.”

Derek shuffled them a little so he was sitting up and Stiles was sitting between his legs, Stiles face still turned up to watch his. “I’m glad you’re my mate too.”

They sat quietly for a little while, waiting for some huge revelation to come by and wash through them, telling them that they’d for sure made the connection. When it didn’t happen, they were both feeling a little discouraged, and a little like this journey was going to be horrible. But, Stiles was still smiling up at him so Derek kept the façade up and Stiles grabbed a hold of his hand, “You know I love you right.” 

Derek froze, Stiles hadn’t said that before. He’d never told Derek that he loved him, or told anything close to that for the matter. Maybe it was because they’d always had a relatively unspoken agreement that they knew how they felt, knew that they cared, but they never really talked about it. Stiles looked a little nervous.

“I’m in love with you.” Stiles says again, a little quieter and a little less for Derek than it was for himself.

“I love you too.” Derek says then, making eye contact with him and then mirroring the smile that gave him. “With everything in me.”

Stiles seemed to bliss out for a second and then he gasped in some air. Derek watched him closely, moving so he was holding Stiles up in front of him a little bit more. When Stiles didn’t say anything Derek shook him just a little bit, “Stiles; Stiles talk to me. Tell me what’s happening.”

“That’s it.” Stiles says with a smile, “That’s the feeling. That’s a good feeling.”

Derek looked like he’d just been hit with a wave of relief so strong he couldn’t hold in the giddiness. So he grabbed Stiles’ face and matched their lips up, holding them together just long enough for Stiles to start kissing him back. Another first. Another thing they didn’t talk about. But another thing that Derek was more than willing to do again.

“Thank you.” Stiles says, a little breathless as Derek pulls away. “Thank you.”

“Let’s call Scott up.” Derek says, sounding impressively optimistic for who he was as a person, “Let’s keep moving with this, we’ve got some momentum.”

Just as Derek called out to him Stiles grabbed a hold of his hand to get his focus back, “I’m going to be in pain but you’ve got to just let it happen. Unless it gets to the point where you’re genuinely concerned for my health, then you can do it.”

Derek takes a second but then he nods in agreement and Scott walks through the door. He looks a little anxious, a little like he’s not sure what he’s doing, and very much ready to help. Because that’s who Scott was as a person.

“How do you want to do this bro?” Scott asks, jumping onto the bed so he was sitting next to the two of them, “Just a normal hug it out? A cuddle? Do you want me to spoon you?”

Stiles burst out laughing and reached out to squeeze Scott’s shoulder, “Whatever you want to do.”

Then Scott was moving forward and pulling Stiles into a hug that very much resembled the one that he’d given him when Stiles’ mom had died years before. Scott had come into his room even though Stiles had refused to see any of the rest of his family and Mr. Stilinski had tried to talk him out of it. Stiles had hurled all the pillows off of his bed at Scott, yelling at him, but Scott persisted until he was sitting down on Stiles bed and pulling him in for a hug that had Stiles bursting into tears.

The reemergence of feelings was making that feeling come back. He gripped Scott a little tighter and that was when Derek moved away from him, just enough that all of the pain was finally hitting him again and both boys were holding on so tight it’d probably bruise. 

“I’m so sorry Stiles.” Scott was muttering and rubbing one hand up and down his back, “We can do this, I’m sorry that it hurts.”

“S’okay.” Stiles grits out trying not to let Derek know just how much it hurt.

No matter how tight they were holding on, it wasn’t seeming to get any better and Derek was getting more and more anxious to the side, “Admit something. Admit what worries you, Stiles. Let him know what’s holding you back from trusting him completely.”

Stiles didn’t want to, he didn’t want to let Scott know, but the pain was too much so his mouth was moving before his brain even realized it, “You didn’t notice when Gerard beat me up.”

Scott tensed a little bit, his face digging into Stiles’ shoulder before he told him, “Sorry, I’m sorry. I should’ve realized it. That was my bad. I’m so sorry.”

Both of them realized that was the only time Scott had actually apologized for that situation. Usually he avoided it, made up some excuse because that was such a tense situation. “Thank you.”

And there it was again, that blossom of bliss that had Stiles’ arms loosening. Scott did the same which had Derek surging forward to get a hold of Stiles and stop the pain. It’d taken them a minute, at most, but Stiles was covered in a sheen of sweat and he was almost limp in Derek’s arm.

“Thanks Scotty.” He said again, his hand going out to give Scott’s back a pat, “Two down. Fourteen to go.”

Scott looked a little different too, a little more relaxed when he said, “Not a problem, Stiles. I’m sorry, again, for everything. Gerard especially.”

“I know.” Stiles says, “Good to hear you say it though.”

“Want me to send someone else up?” Scott asks, getting up and looking to where Derek had Stiles lying flat on his back, Derek’s hand resting on his head and carding through his hair from where he sat up against the headboard. Stiles looked wiped, and Scott had a feeling he knew what he was going to say before he even said it.

“Not yet, give him a while to recover.” Derek says, “But… probably Lydia next.”

“No.” Stiles shakes his head a little, his hand going to grip Derek’s thigh when Derek’s hand had dislodged for just a second. “Not Lydia.”

Both of them had their eyebrows creased, not knowing who would be third if it wasn’t her. It’d always seemed like Lydia was third in Stiles’ eyes as far as the pack went. She’d be the third one that Stiles called when it came down to it. “Then who?”

A little cough and Stiles spoke up without looking at either of them, “Isaac.”

Neither said anything but Scott nodded and headed off toward downstairs, he paused at the doorway and said, “I’ll send him up in a half hour or something.”

Derek didn’t press, waiting for Stiles to offer up information on his own. It took him a while longer than Derek would’ve liked but he managed to hold out for about five minutes. Then Stiles was clearing his throat a little and saying, “He’s never lied to me. Even when we didn’t like each other he didn’t lie. And even when he didn’t like me he helped saved me. He didn’t act like it was a burden either; as much of a dick as he was he never made me feel like an invalid because of it.”

Derek didn’t argue his reasoning, didn’t try and change his mind and say that Lydia was still probably closer as far as trusting went. She’d been with him through a lot, and while it was condescending a lot of the time, she still respected his intelligence for the most part.

“Lydia doesn’t ever see me as a priority.” Stiles goes on. “She’s always been a priority to me, I’ve always watched out for her. But whenever we go through something, I’m never the first one she checks on, or the second or the third. I’m lucky if I make it in the front half. I know that’s selfish, but I used to look at her, every single time, right after Scott. That’s different now of course, I mean, I have you but when I didn’t really have anyone and Scott was attached at the hip to Allison, Lydia still wasn’t on my side. She was always looking at Allison too, then by default Scott. I was last.”

“Are you sure it’s not because she assumes you can handle yourself? She assumes that you’re alright and she doesn’t need to worry?” Derek asks, not able to just let the explanation go by.

Stiles had a half of a smile, “I still check on you. I know that you’re the best fighter of all of them probably. I know that you’re able to take care of yourself. But after a fight, after scanning all of you over in one go, I check on you. Because that’s what you do when you really care about someone.”

“I didn’t ever really think of it that way.” Derek admits.

“You look for me.” It’s not a question but it doesn’t exactly sound like a fact either.

“I do look for you.” Derek assures, “Every time.”

After a while more of rest, Isaac was making his way nervously into the room. He smiled at the two of them as he came to sit down next to the two of them, “Ready for this Stiles?”

“Always ready for you Isaac.” Stiles jokes.

Isaac doesn’t say anything for a second before coughing to clear his throat and saying, “Cora told me. Don’t be mad at her, she tells me everything, but she told me how you were picking who to come up. I know it’s only been Scott and Derek so far.” He takes another couple of seconds before saying, “Thank you. I didn’t think… I mean… after everything that’s happened, you’re one of my best friends. I called you that night, and you didn’t even hesitate because you never hesitate.”

“I hate to interrupt…” Derek starts, making the two of them turn to look at him instead of each other, “But I think you should be doing the hug thing while you talk about stuff like this.”

Stiles nodded and then Isaac was moving back against the headboard, imitating Derek’s posture slightly before he said, “I don’t hug very well unless it’s Cora. But I’ve been told I’m pretty good at spooning.”

Stiles burst out laughing and Derek rolled his eyes harder than he had in a very long time before he was not so graciously flipping Stiles onto his side and then gesturing for Isaac to do his thing. Isaac scooted down then too, his leg going between Stiles’ and his arm wrapping around his chest. “Ready?”

“Ready.” Stiles said, looking at Derek.

Then Derek’s moving his hand away and scooting far enough that Stiles’ hand falls off of his leg. Isaac holds on a little tighter when Stiles’ whole body goes tense with pain and he’s grabbing a hold of a pillow to stuff it into his face, bite onto it to keep in the scream.

“Thank you Stiles, thank you for not letting everyone else look at me like the abused kid. Thank you for making sure Derek and I talked things out. This change was one of the best things ever to happen in my life, and it wouldn’t have happened without your help.”

Stiles fisted his hands into the pillow and released it from his mouth, “You always helped save me, even when we weren’t friends. You…”

Derek watched as Stiles took a second to get his breath back, and he was itching with the need to go over to him but Isaac just held on a little tighter. Then, when it was taking Stiles just too long, Isaac was rolling him over, disconnecting just long enough that Stiles was turned so they were facing each other. Then he was moving his hands so they were on either side of Stiles’ head, “Come on, keep talking.”

“You helped me, even when I was a dick about you and Scott becoming close.” Stiles hands were firm on either of Isaac’s shoulders, squeezing tightly, “You helped me during that god damn dementor thing, I have your kidney and I know that not a lot of people would do that for me. You didn’t even question it, you just did it. And…”

It sounded a little bit like a whimper, and Isaac could’ve sworn that his eyes were tearing up. He tried to pain drain, tried to see if there was anything physical that he could help with. While there was a trace of pain, Isaac was pretty sure that was just from how tensed up his fingers were, “Come on Stiles.”

“You stopped the bleeding. When I was kidnapped by the hunters. You stopped the bleeding.” Stiles choked out, “And I know you’ll always have Derek’s back.”

That must’ve done it then because Stiles went lax for a few seconds in that blissed out moment and that had Derek moving forward and Isaac smiling at him, “We did it.”

“Yeah, we did it.” Stiles smirked, back to his previous position except his head was resting on Derek’s legs instead of on the pillows.

“Love ya man.” Isaac says, slapping him on the shoulder

“Love ya too Isaac.” Stiles says, “Best kidney I could’ve ever asked for.”

Isaac chuckles a little bit before he starts to head out of the room while asking, “Who next?”

“I’m not sure.” Stiles admits, “A lot of the others are pretty even.”

“Then who’s not next?” Derek asks, “You know that a lot of the middle pack members are going to be about equal but who do you really lack trust with? Who’s going to be at the end?”

“I don’t know!” Stiles groans, “I don’t like this, I don’t like picking my favorite members of the pack.”

“You’re not picking favorites.” Derek reminds him, “You’re picking who you have the best relationships with and which relationships could use a little bit more time to form. Liam probably isn’t going to be next, he’s new so it’s hard to feel the same trust for him. You said Allison was going to be later as well.”

“Think about it from the other side too.” Isaac speaks up, “I mean, the three of us all had pretty equal relationships with you but Peter, for example, hardly trusts anyone so even if you feel you guys are relatively close, he may still be towards the end.”

“Smart.” Stiles says. Then he just shrugs and says, “Send up anyone. Like when we have to popcorn in school, it’s up to you. I’ll figure it out when they get here.”

\-----(CHAPTER 20 is all of the other pack members that are skipped in this section!)----- 

It took them almost four more hours, of short breaks between each person, but they managed it. Derek managed to not freak out too much when Stiles was hugging Allison and it seemed to be taking too long and Stiles was starting to twitch just a little too much. Finally, after just too long, he had the moment of relaxation that had Derek darting forward to practically lift him from Allison’s grasp. 

“One more.” Allison says with a small smile, “I’ll send up Jackson.”

“I pray to God we’ll get through this faster.” Stiles mutters to Derek, “I can’t do this much longer.”

“Send Deaton up with Jackson.” Derek says, “If it’s the final connection then his magic should come back, and Deaton was a little worried about that. So he should probably be up here.”

Allison nods and walks out. Derek was essentially cradling Stiles on the bed now, and Stiles smirked up at him a little bit, “We never cuddle this much. Maybe this stupid pain thing was a blessing in disguise. You know? Meant to make us work through problems and all that.”

“That’s the stupidest fricking blessing I’ve ever heard of.” Derek grunts, “I think we would’ve worked through it on our own, if any witch puts a pain spell on you again I’ll rip her to shreds.”

“Yeah, I accept that.” Stiles says, “Once was enough.”

“Once was too much.” Derek corrected, “Besides, once you have this magic back you can get rid of this for both of you. Jackson’s getting antsy always having to be around everyone. As much as he loves Malia, he needs some time off every so often.”

“You’re right. And don’t worry, he’ll be easy. We’ve kind of gotten closer with this whole thing, and the whole loss of control thing. I never thought I’d say this but I can honestly tell you that Jackson is my friend, a friend that I’d never be afraid to call if something was going wrong.”

“Good.” Derek smiles. He was finally feeling like the pack as a whole was getting cohesive, finally feeling like the trust was growing enough that the pack would trust anyone to save them at any time. That was a good feeling. 

When Jackson got up there, Deaton not too far after him, Stiles seemed to be fully recuperated, Malia was on his side still, holding his hand just like when it’d been her turn. That had sucked for both of them, leaving Jackson sitting on the couch in the room while Malia and Stiles hugged it out. Derek did his best to comfort him but they were both so focused on pain, either their own or their mates,

This time, Jackson just rolled his eyes a little and said, “Another round of this?”

“Another round.” Stiles replied, “Hopefully the last one and I can get the both of us off of this pain trip we’ve been going on.”

Stiles pulled Derek up then, so they were both standing with Stiles about an arm length from Jackson. Deaton made himself at home on the couch, very intent to watch. Malia and Derek were then nodding at each other, pushing the two together and then letting go of them.

Jackson’s arms instinctually went to wrap around Stiles’ back, Stiles’ arms going around his neck. Then the both of them were mumbling to each other. Derek initially tried to block it out, thinking that he wasn’t really invited to their little trust fest, but Malia apparently didn’t feel that way and her eyebrows creased together as she thought through what she was hearing.

“I felt like I was going to die.” Stiles admits, “When you came up that day and said you knew how it felt. I thought it was going to kill me. I don’t know what I would’ve done that day.”

“You shielded me, when the… the grave… we were dropped in started caving in. You didn’t even hesitate to try and block the dirt even though you were in just as much pain as me. I didn’t think that people would want to do that for me.”

Then Stiles was dropping to the ground, slipping out of Jackson’s grasp. Jackson was falling back against the wall, sliding down it to sit on the floor as he rested his head back as well. Malia and Derek were both moving towards their respective mates and Jackson put his hand up with a little gasp, “I’m good. No pain.”

But Stiles was still on the ground with his eyes closed and body completely limp. Deaton was pushing Derek away from him, squatting down next to him and tapping at his cheek, “Wake up Stiles. Come on.”

It felt like the temperature in the room rocketed twenty degrees higher, and Deaton’s hand snapped back from where it was resting on Stiles’ shoulder. 

“What is going on!?” Derek snapped, sweat already breaking out on his brow, “What’s wrong with him Deaton?”

“Nothing’s wrong.” Deaton said, trying to keep his voice from turning to anger as Scott came running up the stairs and pushing into the room.

“Clearly something is!” Derek says, “He’s not awake! That’s a problem! Wake him up.”

Then Stiles was gasping and flying into a sitting position, Deaton went to hesitantly put his hand on Stiles’ back to help hold him up but they could all tell that he was still a little cautious. Derek growled a little before going to Stiles’ side and holding him up. 

“Stiles!” Scott says, dropping down on his other side.

“I’m good.” Stiles promises, “I’m alright.”

“Well then maybe turn the thermostat in here back down to the usual sixties instead of over eighty degrees. I’m sweating like a hog.” Jackson says, fanning himself off by pulling his shirt up and waving it out. 

Stiles looks nervous as he looks to Deaton who nods his head, “It’s okay, it’s back. Neither you and Jackson are feeling the pain anymore, that means that it’s back.”

Stiles nods, squares his shoulders, and then mumbles something under his breath. The temperature drops back to normal and then all six of them in the room are standing up and heaving in a sigh of relief. Because it was finally back to normal. Even though they still had people after them, even though they were never out of the fight completely, now they were back to full strength.

“Thank god.” Stiles mutters, “Thank god.”

Scott has a genuine full blown smile as he brings Stiles in for another hug and says, “You’re finally warm again, you’re not so weirdly cold. It’s a good feeling.”

“Thanks bro.” Stiles says, “Thanks for not thinking I was a weakling through all of this.”

“No one thought that.” Derek assures. “Now, let’s get back on track. We’ll figure out where we’re at with all our enemies. Which, as of now, we realize are all connected which is somewhat concerning but also a little nice. Get rid of one, we weaken them all.”

“Let’s do this.” Stiles says with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want me to go into each person's interaction with Stiles I would love to do that but I thought you might get bored of it if it went on too long, so just let me know!


	20. Building Trust (More General Pack Love, left out of last chapter)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I’m worried you’re going to turn to dark magic if yours doesn’t come back.” Danny blurts out.
> 
> Derek glares at him and it has Stiles tensing, trying to pull away because as much as he’d worried about the same thing, he didn’t think other people were feeling the same way, he didn’t want people thinking that about him. Especially Danny; good, sweet Danny who saw the good in everyone and if he was seeing evil in Stiles then that was something bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter goes in the middle of the last chapter, it's Stiles' interactions with all the other members of the pack that occurred between his chats with Isaac and Allison.

Isaac ended up sending Cora. That didn’t surprise Stiles in the slightest and he had to admit he was a little relieved. As far as personal relationships went, he and Cora had a pretty simple one. While they hadn’t always been on the best of terms, they were fine. They had a mutual understanding that Derek, despite all of his bravado, needed to be protected because the shit the Hale family had gone through was too much and he had always put too much on his plate.

But, they also had this mutual distrust of each other for that same reason. After Cora had run off for a month or so after only staying with Derek for a couple months, it’d really broken him down and Stiles was still a little afraid she would do that again. Cora, on the other hand, thought that Stiles wasn’t serious enough and was going to hurt Derek by saying something stupid and not realizing it, then just continue to dig a hole. 

So, when she got up there and sat cross legged down on the bed, they both glanced anxiously at Derek, knowing he probably wouldn’t want to hear what they were going to talk about, “Maybe you should cover your ears…”

“Yeah, I agree with Stiles.” Cora says, “I want privacy, and I don’t need a literal big brother breathing down my neck for this.”

Derek rolled eyes a little but nodded nonetheless and said, “Go ahead and start then, I’ll just plug my ears like a child while you two children do whatever you have to do.”

They both nodded and as soon as Cora leaned forward to hug Stiles, Derek was leaning back and putting his fingers in his ears with a little huff of annoyance.

“You can’t leave him again.” Stiles blurts out.

“You can’t act like you’re not in this for the long run!” Cora says back, just as much venom in it.

“I didn’t plan on it.” Cora can practically feel the glare he’d be leveling at her if they were face to face, “I am in it for the long run. We’ve talked about it. I wouldn’t hurt him Cora. You know that.”

“Well I’m not leaving either.” Cora says, “I just got spooked the first time, I hadn’t seen family in so long, I didn’t know what it was going to be like. What did you expect from me Stiles? He didn’t even know I was alive, and then we were living together. It was weird, it was too hard.”

“He loves you.” Stiles says, “He completely changed when you came back after your month vacation. I’d never seen that much relief on someone’s face. I’d never seen anyone look happier to talk to a person that left them.”

“I didn’t want to leave!” She says, “I just, I didn’t want to let him down being here!”

“You’ve never let him down.” Stiles promises. “I don’t think you ever possibly could.”

Cora leans back enough to smile at him, “Thank you, for taking care of him. Being here for him. I can tell how close you two are, it’s pretty cool. I’m glad that you’re the one my brother will be spending the rest of his life with.”

“I’m glad you’re his sister too.” Stiles says, “I’d say he had a pretty cool family, even with the crazy uncle aspect. And you’ve always been the one to help me save him from himself. You’ve trusted that I could , help you, even though I gave you no reason.”

“I trust you to help save him, and me, and all of us.” Cora says, “I trust that no matter what you’ll stick around with the pack. You’re one of the few people that I see sticking around no matter what. I never worry that you’ll bail when times get tough.”

“I never thought anyone would be good enough for Isaac, but you’re perfect for him. You hold him together. I know you won’t leave, I know you’ll be here too. You’re one of the best pack members, team players, that I’ve ever seen. And I should’ve given you more credit because you’re the one who figured this stupid thing out. You got my magic back and I promise you, I’ll never underestimate you again.”

Then the feeling came and Cora was reaching to Derek and yanking him over to Stiles, putting them together and letting Derek give him a quick hug before he was turning to Cora and pulling her in too, wrapping his arms around both of them and giving Cora a kiss on the head.

“Love you Cora.”

“Love you too bro.” Cora says with a smile, “And I guess you’ve got a keeper here with Stiles.”

“You forgot that I read lips.” Derek says then.

Stiles glares up at him and Cora smirks, “No, I didn’t. But Stiles never knew. And I thought you should know that the thing that worries him the most is losing you, or someone hurting you. I guess it worries me too.”

Derek pats Stiles’ back in condolences as Cora gives his shoulder a little punch as she pulls away. “You two are good for each other. Almost as good as Isaac and I.”

Stiles studies her for a second and then says, “Do you feel like he’s your mate?” 

“I feel like I want to be with him forever, I feel like he should be my mate but we don’t have that bond.” Cora says, “Why?”

“Well, I think if this exercise has shown us anything it’s shown that we can really strengthen bonds without doing much more than hugging. So, maybe you two should just go hug it out, tell each other all your true feelings and such. Like Malia explained, you have the foundation, you just have to build it up.”

Cora nods a little bit, glancing to Derek who tells her, “You don’t need my permission. That’s not how it works and you know it. I don’t have any choice in who you love, but I can say that I think you’ve chosen a good one. Isaac’s a good one. You’re your own person, do what you want to do.”

Cora lights up a little bit then, then she’s bolting away and yelling for Isaac even before she’s out of ear shot for them. Derek looks to Stiles again, “I can’t believe that half of your trust problems are based on if you trust them and their relationship to me.”

“What would your trust problems be?”

Derek shrugs a little bit then, “If they’d be there for you, and Cora, and the pack. Of course.”

“I have bets that Cora will send up Boyd.” Stiles says, switching the subject onto something lighter, “I’ll bet you twenty dollars.”

“I’m not betting you money, idiot.” Derek says. “But, I bet it’ll be Peter.”

They heard a knocking at the door and a voice saying, “You’re both wrong.”

In walked Danny then, all his dimpled and easy going glory. He smiled to the both of them and said, “Cora specifically picked someone she knew you wouldn’t be expecting. She knew you’d bet on her, I think you’re already breaking your promise of underestimating her Stiles.”

“She told you about that!” Stiles looked a little bit insulted as he said, “Are you talking about what I say to all of you! That’s not okay! It’s private.”

“Calm down Stiles, she told me. She trusts me to not tell anyone else because I won’t. She just wants you to be okay but she also has a pretty big load on her right now and I think she wanted to tell someone that wouldn’t accidently spill something. Isaac spills to Erica and Boyd or Scott on accident all of the time. So she told me, sorry.”

“No, no. It’s okay.” Stiles says, “I just, you know. I don’t really want people to know about this sort of thing. It’s literally the deepest parts, the most intricate things, in my relationships with people. You know?”

“Yeah, I get it.” Danny says, “But so you know, I think Cora’s trying to get everyone to do it, to strengthen all our back bonds. We’re hoping it makes us an even better pack, so you’re not the only one going through it. Okay? We’re all here for each other.”

“Then let’s do this Danny Boy.” Stiles says, “Miguel will step away for a second.”

Derek’s eye roll this time moved his whole head as he said, “You idiots. I can’t believe you thought that he was telling the truth for even half a second Danny.”

“I didn’t really, but a hot guy in Stiles’ room wasn’t something I was going to question. He would’ve thought that I was insulting his attractiveness or something equally stupid. So I let it slide.”

“You’re a good man Danny.” Stiles smirks, “Now come on.”

Then they were standing up in a hug and Derek was, once again, moving back. Danny was the first to talk, which was a relief to Stiles because the pain hit a stronger wave at just that moment than it had with any of the others. Danny was practically holding him up but he didn’t even slouch with the weight, “I called you when I thought I was going to lose control. I didn’t even call my own boyfriend. I don’t know why and I don’t know if it was the best move but I can’t regret it because you just showed up like there was nothing to it. I know that any pack member would be there, but you literally walked out of your house as I was on the phone with you and I didn’t expect that. I could’ve been out of control, I could’ve really hurt you but you just walked in with no sleep in the past two nights.”

Stiles smiles as he gets his legs back under him a little better, “You weren’t close to losing control. You could’ve been shot at and you would’ve stayed human, you’re a kickass werewolf. I think you’re more human than a lot of humans are.”

“I’m worried you’re going to turn to dark magic if yours doesn’t come back.” Danny blurts out.

Derek glares at him and it has Stiles tensing, trying to pull away because as much as he’d worried about the same thing, he didn’t think other people were feeling the same way, he didn’t want people thinking that about him. Especially Danny; good, sweet Danny who saw the good in everyone and if he was seeing evil in Stiles then that was something bad.

But, Danny wouldn’t let him pull back, he tugged him in tighter even though Stiles’ arms were loosening and he seemed to be drawing out of the situation altogether. He started to droop a little bit then, and Derek was looking at him worriedly and looking like he was going to go snap Stiles out of Danny’s grasp without a second thought.

“Stop.” Danny says to him, “Stiles, listen to me. I don’t think you’re evil. I don’t think you’re a bad person. You know that, you know that I think that you’re a great person. But I think that you’re worried that without your magic you’re not going to be able to help as much. I don’t think it’d make you do evil things…”

“You don’t think I’ll put torturous spells on people.” Stiles grits out, “Make them feel pain for no good reason.”

“Stiles!” Danny growls a little bit, “Listen to me!”

Derek keeps inching forward, like he wants to shut Danny up and block Stiles’ ears all at the same time. It looks like he wants to shove them apart and not let anyone else back in the room no matter if it was going to bring his magic back.

“Of course I don’t think that! Jesus. You’d never use it for bad things, you’d never hurt anyone unless they were hurting us but I think that there’s a reason your magic is more healing based, more based on fixing and keeping us together than hurting the ones who are tearing us apart. Do you get what I’m saying?”

Derek moves forward again, Stiles looks like he’s about to pass out. He’s sweating and shaky and his fingers are gripping Danny’s shirt to give him purchase while also trying to push him away in anger. He doesn’t have enough strength to do that though with Danny keeping them pulled flush together.

“He needs a break.” Derek says.

“Then we have to start over!” Danny takes a step away from Derek, moving Stiles with him, “It’s okay. Just, just wait. I promise Derek.”

“Talk Stiles, yell if you want but you’ve got to talk.” Danny says, “You have to understand what I’m saying. You’re smart, think about what I’m saying.”

“I don’t want you to think I’m evil.” Stiles grunts, “Ever, because you’re a good person. And if you think I’m bad, then I am.”

“I don’t think you’re bad! I think you’re too good, too loyal for your own good sometimes. For God’s sake Stiles you almost killed yourself saving Peter. I think you’d be so worried about using it for bad, or so guilty once you did, that you’d let it kill you.”

Stiles whines a little bit in pain, coughing into Danny’s shoulder as he relaxes slightly, not trying to pull away at least. Danny moves just enough to hold them him in a better position, “Stiles, I’m worried that you’re going to get yourself killed because you forget that sometimes the best thing you can do is step back and take a minute to think before you do something.”

Stiles looked seconds away from passing out, seconds away from not being able to listen anymore so then Derek was putting his hand on Stiles’ back, “Danny, if you don’t hurry this up we’re starting over anyway. See if you can still do this with me touching him.”

Stiles starts gaining a little color then, his brain gets a little clearer and he looks like he might finally be listening to what Danny is not doing a great job at saying to him. After a few deep, pain free, breaths Stiles is saying, “I know what you’re saying.”

“Then why… why do you still seem pissed?”

“I wouldn’t do that.” Stiles says, shaking his head a little, “I wouldn’t let it get to that. You have to trust that. I don’t… I wouldn’t leave you behind…”

Danny seems to get something then, he seems to realize what Stiles is saying because he cranes his neck to look at Stiles’ face, “You wouldn’t leave us, you wouldn’t take unnecessary risks because you don’t want to leave us behind.”

Stiles nods then and continues, “I know I’m known for taking stupid risks but I haven’t done that in a long time, I haven’t done anything like that in a long time.”

“The Peter thing?”

“I handled it, I could handle it.” Stiles says.

“Good to know.”

“You think I’m a good person?” Stiles asks, “You actually think I’m a good person?”

Danny stifles a little laugh before saying, “Yeah Stiles, I think you’re a better person than you think you are.”

Derek’s hand flies off Stiles when the bond finally seems to connect, Stiles body flashing hot for just a second as he let’s go of Danny and then turns around to grab onto Derek’s hand. Danny breathes out a sigh of relief as he steps back as well and then starts twisting his hands together with anxiousness.

“You can go.” Derek says, clearly dismissing him as Stiles keeps from looking at him.

“It’s okay Derek.” Stiles promises, “We knew this was going to be hard, it’s okay. It’s just Danny. He didn’t mean any harm.”

“I’m sorry.” Danny says.

“Don’t be. I’m fine. I just, I need a little bit I think.”

“Yeah, of course.” Danny heads for the door and tells them, “I’ll give you a bit before I send anyone else up. But, yeah, I’m sorry.”

Derek and Stiles were sitting on the couch then, Stiles lying down with his head on one of Derek’s legs while his legs draped over one of the armrests. “Would – Are you scared that I would do that?”

Derek clears his throat and lets his hand move up and down Stiles’ arm, “I’m scared that you’ll die but I’m not scared of you making a mistake. I don’t think that your impulse decisions are really impulsive. I think that you think through your actions more than people give you credit for.”

Stiles smiles a little then, quirking up one side of his mouth, “And I think that you’re better at sharing feelings than people give you credit for.”

“You’re a brat, you know.”

“I know.”

“Want to bet who’s going to come up next?” Derek asks.

“Ethan, without a shred of doubt.”

“Really? I bet Danny will need someone to make him feel better for a little bit, I think he’ll send up Lydia. Because Lydia will drill him if he looks even a little upset and he’s not going to want to discuss that. Ethan won’t make him talk, he’ll just sit there and let Danny wallow for a little while.”

“That’s why you’re the alpha.” Stiles admits, “That kind of thinking.”

“One of the alphas.” Derek corrects, “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yeah, that was just, that was hard to hear.” Stiles admits, “I’m not used to that kind of honesty. I know it’s important and it’s what’s helping me but I really don’t like it. I don’t like feeling like they all dislike me more than they like me.”

“Stiles, they’re telling you the few things that’re in their head. They have to dig to think of what it might be. The things you’re thinking, what you’re worried about when it comes to them, that doesn’t mean that you think any less of them. It doesn’t mean that saying it out loud makes it any worse, you’re actually making it better.”

“It’s still hard.” Stiles says, “But, yeah, you’re right. Of course you’re right. I just want it to be over.”

“Got quite a few left.” Derek reminds him, “And someone is coming up the stairs right now so let’s see who wins this one.”

The door opened that time to reveal Lydia and it made Stiles roll his eyes when Derek nudged him in victory. Lydia looked a little put out, she looked a bit uncomfortable and a bit like she wasn’t ready for whatever they were going to say to each other. As good as they had always been for each other, how good they were working together, there was always a little bit of suspicion between them.

“Alright Stiles.” Lydia says, “Please don’t make me cry during this.”

“I think you look beautiful when you cry.”

Lydia gives him a smile, a small one but the most genuine one he’d ever seen. Then she’s sitting on the couch on after pushing his legs off and curling into his side. “You can scoot now Derek.”

Derek does as he’s told and stands up off the couch, leaving Stiles to scoot into the corner he’d been in previously while tugging Lydia along with him. She looks a little guilty when he grabs a hold of the armrest with his fingers digging into the dark leather. Lydia uses one hand to grip his free one before using the other to tap at his face a little.

“Do you want to start?” Lydia asks.

“Yeah.” Stiles takes a quick second to get his thoughts together and then he asks her, “Why do you always look at someone else before me? After a fight, you look at half the pack before even sparing me a glance. As much as I hate playing the human card, I thought you’d look at me toward the beginning, along with Allison. I understand Aiden, your person. Then you look at Allison most of the time, or Jackson or even Kira. I know you’ve gotten he’s close to Kira and I know you and Jackson have the history, but… you know…”

Lydia purses her lips for a few seconds and then shrugs slightly, “I know that I do that. I know it isn’t fair and it probably isn’t right because I know you look for me, or at least used to. I care about you, so much, you know I do. You know that I would do anything for you. I don’t know why I don’t look though, so I can’t answer that question.”

Stiles looks confused then, glancing to Derek who shrugs a little bit, “Then what do we do?”

“What do you mean?” Lydia asks.

“I mean, we’re supposed to come to a conclusion. That’s how this works, we come to a conclusion and then it’s better and the bond works and, you know?”

“I don’t think that’s the point.” Lydia says, “I think the point is to understand, accept.”

“I don’t accept that though!” Stiles snaps, pulling his knees up to his chest as the pain hits his chest hard and at full force, he grunts out a few choice curse words before saying, “I just, I can’t.”

Derek wants to speak up, he wants to pipe in because Lydia seems to be struggling for the words but she puts a hand up to stop him. Then she puts her hands on either side of Stiles’ face and takes a deep breath to say, “I would fall to pieces if you died. I wouldn’t be able to move on and continue my life as I did before because you’re such an important part of my life. I will never be okay with you not moving on and as much as I check on everyone, I know you have someone checking on you. I trust that Derek and Scott will be keeping track of you. Just like you know that Aiden and Allison are going to look for me.”

Stiles finally makes eye contact then and his hands move up so they are holding onto her wrists, then he smiles just enough to make the ache in her heart alleviate a little bit, “We don’t have to be each other’s number ones. It’s okay to just care.”

Lydia’s lips turn up a little bit again, it’s not a full smile, her teeth aren’t showing, but it’s the one that says they’ve figured it out. She nods and then says, “You’re right. Caring doesn’t mean we have to be each other’s first priority, that’s unrealistic. Only one person can be someone’s number one, and yours is Derek.”

“And yours is Aiden.”

“Yeah, it is.” Lydia says, “I love you.”

“I love you.” Stiles says.

Derek moves toward them as Stiles’ hands slide down her arms as he relaxes slightly. Lydia moves out of the way enough for Derek to pull Stiles up and hold onto him as Lydia wipes her eyes just enough to make sure there wasn’t any tears. Stiles long lived crush was finally completely closed, as much as it hadn’t been a thing since Derek came into the picture, now it was out in the open. Now they both knew that even though there wasn’t a single romantic string in their relationship, they could still love each other and be there for each other, they just might not be there before everyone else.

“Still hate this.” Stiles says once Lydia leaves.

“But…?” 

“But you’re right. It’s good to get it out in the open.” Stiles says. “I bet Peter.”

“I bet Allison.” 

Then they were tied up because Peter was walking in looking slightly constipated and slightly like he wanted to run. Another not shocking entrance because Peter was not exactly one for physical contact unless it was violence.

“Alright Peter, how do you want to do this?”

“I want you to not act like this is as weird as it’s going to be.” Peter says, “How about we just sit on the couch and I put my hand on the back of your neck and try not to shove my claws into your throat.”

“That’s reassuring Peter, thanks.” Stiles says.

He does as he’s told though and Peter is standing behind him with one hand going to rest on his neck. Peter then nods to Derek who moves away while Stiles grips his knees. Stiles groans a little bit as he hunches over, Peter’s hand following over, “Okay, the pain isn’t weaning.”

“What’s the deal here Stiles? What do you want me to do?”

“I don’t trust you not to abandon all of us.” Stiles says, instead of explaining, “I don’t trust that you’ll stick around if you aren’t given a better offer. I think that you’re inclined to do whatever best suits you even if it killed the rest of us.”

Peter’s hand tightens a little bit, and Stiles involuntarily twitches. That has his grip loosening up and he lets out a sigh, “I know you don’t think I’m here to stay. I understand why you don’t think that. But you took a live grenade from my hands. You lost your magic to disengage that literal time bomb. I owe you everything including my life. I don’t plan on ever leaving. I plan on sticking around for Derek and for Cora. The rest of the pack too.”

Stiles turned his head so he could see Peter and when Stiles squeezed his eyes shut thanks to a shot of pain rocketing through his brain Peter was giving his neck a reassuring squeeze as opposed to one that scared him. Then Stiles said, “You’re not lying.”

“No, I’m not.” Peter said. “As horrible as it is to be in a pack of children, and as immature you all are, I don’t hate you all. I want you to be happy and I don’t want you to lose your magic. I want to help you get it back and if this is what does that then I’m going to do it. You’re pack, I’m pack, and I’m intending on keeping it that way.”

Derek was the one who looked like he’d just felt the relief that Stiles got, Derek was the one who, as soon as he got a hand on Stiles, was hugging Peter. Stiles had literally never seen Peter hug anyone before. He’d never seen Derek and Peter look like an actual family and right now, it looked like they were an uncle/nephew hug between family members that only got to see each other for Christmas. Stiles thought that was the biggest win of the day.

“Thank you Stiles. Thank you for taking the grenade. And I swear to you, I will do everything in my power to get you your magic back if this doesn’t work. As much as I trust my dear nieces idea, magic is fickle. So, no matter what, you’re getting it back.”

That, Stiles trusted, with everything in him he believed that Peter would get his magic back without a shred of doubt. He believed that Peter was there to stay then. So, he was giving Peter a hug too and even though all Peter could do was give him an awkward pat on the back in return, it seemed a little bit like Peter felt better too.

“Thank you.” Derek said once Peter left the room, “I would’ve never been able to ask him, or find out if he would’ve stayed.”

“His heart didn’t skip?”

“No, he was telling the truth from what I could tell. You’re the one that trusted him though, you must’ve felt that it was genuine.” 

“Yeah, I think he was honest.” Stiles agreed, “And I think that he genuinely feels pack feelings and he really wants to prove himself.”

“I have a family.” Derek says, a small smile growing on his face, “And I don’t have an impending fear that they’re going to leave.”

Stiles didn’t say anything, deciding to give Derek’s hand a squeeze instead and then saying, “I bet Allison.”

“I bet you’re right.” Derek says.

When Kira walks in next both of them look at her curiously and she rolls her eyes and says, “Allison didn’t want to come up yet, so she had me come instead. Don’t worry, Peter never would’ve picked me on his own.”

“I don’t do human contact this much.” Stiles mutters to Derek, “I’m getting really sick of finding new ways to cuddle people.”

Kira smiled and then the two of them were facing each other on the couch. She put her hands out and nodded towards them, telling Stiles to hold onto them. Stiles just shrugged and set his palm son hers and then nodded to Derek, telling him it was fine to go. Then Stiles’ hands were squeezing Kira’s and she nodded at him encouragingly.

“If you hurt Scott I would never be able to forgive you.” Stiles says bluntly.

Kira doesn’t flinch, her smile doesn’t drop even a millimeter, and she nods. That helps Stiles, that helps him feel like this isn’t going to be as hard as he was assuming it would be. Scott was his best friend, and for a long time his only friend, and after Allison had brutally ripped out his heart, Stiles was a little bit protective.

Stiles new it wasn’t Allison’s fault, entirely at least. She was under a lot or pressure, she was having a hard time, and there was so much going on in their lives that it seemed impossible for anyone to stay together. But she’d texted Scott, telling him that they couldn’t work out and then hiding away for a month. It had absolutely crushed him until bright and shiny Kira came along. 

“I won’t.” She says, squeezing his hands in return, “I love Scott, with all of my heart and it feels like I’ve known him for my entire life. And I know that you worry about him because he’s your best friend, and he worries about you too, but what you feel for Derek, I feel for him. He’s the one that I see when I look into our future.”

“You can’t, you can’t make him choose.” Stiles continues, “And you have to make sure that he remembers himself, because he’s the most selfless person and the most trusting person and sometimes that bites him in the ass.”

“Okay.” She says, “Stiles, I’ll protect him.” Then there’s a pause and she gets her turn, “You can’t forget about him.”

“What?”

“You can’t forget that he was your alpha, is your alpha. Granted you have two, we all have two, but you can’t forget that he’s been with you since the very beginning. I know that I don’t really have a right to talk about your guys’ past, I wasn’t there, but I know that he worries that you’re going to defend Derek over him no matter what.”

“He’s my best friend.” Stiles says, “I know you think the world of him but he’s my best friend. I will never abandon him.”

Then Kira is smiling her full blown smile again and Stiles can’t help but to smile back, “We’ve got ourselves a pretty good alpha don’t we?”

“Yeah, two of them.” Stiles smirks, “We’re pretty lucky.”

And when Stiles grunts after that little wave of relief, Derek is squeezing his shoulder and giving Kira a nod, telling her, “Scott’s a good person, and you’re perfect for him.”

“How many more?” Stiles asked, taking the bottle of water that Derek seemed to have fabricated out of thin air, “I’m exhausted.”

“I know.” Derek says sympathetically, “Eight, though. The twins, Boyd, Erica, Jackson, Allison, Malia, and Liam. We can take a break if you want.”

“No, I want to be done with this.” Stiles says. 

“Then he comes the next one.” Derek says, “Gonna guess?”

“Kira would’ve picked… Malia.”

“And here I am!” Malia says, walking in with Jackson in tow behind her, “You ready for this?”

“Always Malia.” Stiles says with a smirk, “Are you going to spoon me? I mean, you’ve done that before…”

Jackson glares at Stiles before drawing his gaze back to Malia. She smiled at him and then walked with him over to the couch where Stiles was also sitting. Derek gave Jackson’s shoulder a squeeze and asked, “Are you ready for this? You can’t be touching Malia either.”

“Yeah I know.” Jackson assures him, “I’ll be okay.”

Malia then grabs a hold of Stiles, yanking him away at the same time as letting go of Jackson who curled onto the couch with Derek keeping a comforting hand on his shoulder. She gets Stiles onto the bed and then does exactly what he suggested, curling up at his back and wrapping her arms around him.

Stiles swallows and grips her hand, “I know you’re better now, I know you’ve gotten control and you know how much you can take before you freak out or try and leave us again. I’m worried that you’ll get hurt and then not tell us because you didn’t have anyone to tell for so long.”

“I don’t care enough to keep secrets.” Malia says, “I mean, the other way around actually, I like you guys too much to not be in the pack. I don’t want any of you to get hurt, and I know you don’t want me too. I get that Stiles, I do.”

“Oh fuck.” Then Stiles’ body is going tense and straight at the same time as Jackson is holding in a shift and rolling into the side of the couch a little bit, “Okay, okay. You Malia… you talk.”

“I don’t think you trust me to help you.” Malia says, “I don’t think you think that I can really help you guys in a situation, you think that I don’t understand and that I can’t help but I can. And I have shown you guys that so many times.”

Stiles’ squeezes her hand a little tighter, “You’ve proven yourself a thousand times. I know you have. And you got Jackson to stop being such an asshole so we owe you even more than you think.”

Derek helps Jackson up and they both come over, Jackson grabbing a hold of Malia’s arm and pulling her up to her feet as Derek sits on the bed and grabs Stiles’ hand. “You know what Stiles? I give you a lot more credit than I thought. That was excruciating.”

“Thanks Jackson.” Stiles smirks, “See you in a while for your turn.”

“I’m stoked.” He says flatly.

“You’re taking a break.” Derek says, “And we’re both going to eat.”

“Is it bad I’m getting used to the pain?” Stiles asks.

Derek freezes and turns to him, “Yes, that’s bad.”

“Why? I feel like that’s a good thing. I feel like that means my tolerance is going up.”

“Or your sensitivity is going down.” Derek points out, “Jackson’s clearly hasn’t diminished at all which means it’s because you’re feeling it more than you think you are. So, if it keeps going down even after a little break then we have to talk to Deaton about it.”

“Fine.” Stiles sulks.

Once they’re sufficiently fed and Derek feels like Stiles isn’t going to keel over, Aiden is walking up the stairs with them and sitting awkwardly on the couch, “I’m not ecstatic about doing this.”

“Oh I am.” Stiles says sarcastically, “I’m very enthusiastic about all of this. I love not having my magic. The empty feeling is actually a little relieving…”

“Okay, okay.” Aiden says, rolling his eyes, “Come on then.”

Stiles ends up on the couch beside him, their hands are wrapped together loosely. If either of them so much as shifted, they’d probably come apart. When Derek gave Aiden a pointed look, he heaved a put upon sigh and tightened his grip just enough to notice that Stiles was using his other hand to grip at his chest like his heart was about to burst out of it.

“Guess what Derek, doesn’t feel like I’m used to it anymore.” Stiles grunts out.

“Bittersweet.” Derek admits.

Then Derek is nodding to Aiden again and he says, “Thank you. For not letting Derek kill me when I punched you that night. You didn’t owe me anything and what I said to you was very out of line. Even when you knew I could’ve killed you that night you helped me.”

“You don’t deserve what’s happened to you.” Stiles says, “You never should’ve been tortured like you were by the alpha pack, the stuff you had to do was outrageous. The things that happened to you, I can’t even imagine what it was like dealing with that. And I know you’ve been through a lot but I don’t think you trust us yet. I don’t think you feel like we’ll do everything we can to save you.”

Aiden looks a little confused, like he doesn’t know what the point of the conversation is until Stiles continues to talk with a little smirk, “Aiden, none of us want you to die, or get hurt, or think that you aren’t worthy to be in the pack. No one is judging your past. If we were all judged by our past then we would be the shittiest pack in the world.”

“I’m sorry that I hit you, I’m sorry that I gave you such a hard time about everything.” Aiden says, “I know you helped Ethan with a nightmare too, and I owe you for that too. I didn’t think that you’d be a good person in a pack. I thought that you’d be the weak link but you’ve proved me wrong.”

Stiles hand is cramped up around Aiden so even when Derek is putting a hand on top of his head and giving it a rub, he doesn’t let go. Aiden winces slightly and starts to pull away which has Stiles turning a little red and letting go. “Thank you.”

“Thanks for not being a complete ass Aiden.” Stiles replies, “Now send up who we all know you’re going to send up.”

“I assume you mean Ethan and I’ll do just that.” Aiden snarks back.

When Ethan shows up he goes to the same place Aiden had been sitting. He’s slightly more receptive than Aiden had been. He gets a hold on Stiles’ bicep and then nods to Derek and pulls Stiles closer to him as Derek lets go. Then Ethan puts his arm around Stiles’ shoulders and says, “I feel like we can do this quick.”

“I do too.” Stiles says, “If Danny thinks you’re a good person, and he’s with you, then I don’t have a whole lot of doubt.”

“I don’t like people knowing what happened with the alphas. I don’t like people knowing that they stripped us of all of our dignity. When you came in that night, I was more than ready to throw you out of the room into the wall. But, you didn’t look like you pitied me. And I owe you so much for that because everybody looks at Aiden and I either with fear or pity. I can’t stand that.”

“You held me up with that stupid claw trap was wrapped around my leg. Even when I know you were about to pass out if you pulled any more pain. I didn’t expect you to pull the pain but you did until you literally couldn’t anymore. I didn’t even have to ask. Thank you for that.” Stiles says, “But I’m always worried you’ll retreat with Aiden.”

“Aiden and I don’t want to go back to being alphas. I never want that power drunk feel of me being seconds away from losing control. I like being a beta, and I like having the structure that’s in this pack without the fear.” Ethan says.

Another one down and Ethan gives him a quick hug before standing up and saying, “We’ll be okay. This is all going to be okay.”

“You’re so much kinder than your brother.” Stiles jokes, “Thanks.”

“Not a problem.” Ethan promises. “Only five more.”

“Five more.” Stiles repeats, “Easy.”

Erica’s next. Sweet, strong, badass Erica. She drops onto the bed and then gestures for Stiles to come over. He does, of course, because no one says no to Erica. She ends up lying her head on Stiles’ chest, holding him down when he tries to curl up in on himself.

“Hey Stiles.”

“Hey Erica.” 

“I’ll go first then. At school, even before I was bitten, you didn’t look at me like I was weak because of the seizures. And you and Scott didn’t let everyone stare that time I did have one. I owe you for that. A lot.”

“I remember that I had a panic attack I had not too long ago. No one else was around because we were outside messing around while everyone else was off doing their own thing. I don’t remember what was going on but you helped me and then you didn’t tell everyone.” Stiles says. “But I know there’s a problem so you should probably spit it out.”

“I feel like you don’t trust me as much as the guys.” Erica says then, “I mean, you always used to act like the only reason I was doing okay was when Boyd or Isaac or someone was helping me.”

“I’m sorry.” Stiles says, “I didn’t realize that… I’m sorry. I know you’re an amazing fighter, you’re one of the strongest ones out there without a doubt. I’d take you as a partner any day of my life.”

Erica smiles a little bit, “You helped me with Boyd when the witches had him and kept me calm. I will never be able to thank you enough for that, you helped me when everyone else kind of thought I was going crazy.”

“You were going crazy, but you had a pretty fair reason. Once you got turned, you had that stage of thinking that as a human I was such an incompetent and useless being.” Stiles says, “You acted like humans had no place in a pack for a while.”

“You’ve proven me wrong about 98 times by now.” Erica says with a smirk, “And I know that you know I’m a good fighter, you’ve just got to act like it a little more often.”

Stiles let go of Erica then and let Erica up, she smiled down at him, patting his shoulder as she crawled off the bed and let Derek in. 

Within just a few seconds of Erica leaving, Boyd walked in and sat on the edge of the bed. He did scooted to rest his back on the headboard and then Stiles was moving up next to him, just their shoulders touching all the way down their arms so the backs of their hands were also touching but not intertwined.

Boyd looked over at Stiles briefly before he was focusing back on the wall and he said, “You’ve saved me, multiple times. I trust that you’ll save me again if it comes to it. I don’t know if you’re physically strong enough to pull me out of quicksand or anything, but I trust you.”

“I trust you too. I trust that you’ll have my back.” Stiles tells him.

“I don’t think that you’ll admit defeat.” Boyd says then, “I don’t think that, if worse comes to worse, you’ll let any of us admit defeat and it might push us too far.”

“And I don’t think that you’ll fight till the very end.” Stiles says with a bit of anger because he'd truly thought that he and Boyd would just be able to say that and get it over with, “I think that sometimes you want to retreat when we don’t have to, even if we have a chance I think you’re too worried that something could go wrong you don’t’ think about the fact that it probably won’t.”

“I’m cautious.” Boyd says.

“And I’m very much for just moving forward.” 

“Good thing we’re a pack then.” Boyd shrugs, “That’s what a pack is for, right? Evening each other out? Because it's not like I think you'd do it to hurt us, and you don't think I hold back because I lack faith, we just have different styles. So we're good.”

“Yeah.” Stiles agrees, smiling a bit. Just as Stiles is about to reach for Derek, Boyd pulls him in for a quick hug. He doesn’t look back once he gets up from the bed but Stiles is pretty sure that’s the first time Boyd has ever actually hugged him, and it was after when he would’ve been expected to.

“Down to three.” Derek says, squeezing his shoulder.

“Liam then Allison, and Jackson at the end.” Stiles says, “Either going to be really easy or really hard.”

When Liam gets into the room, he goes to sit next to Stiles on the bed and then tells him, “This is going to be a riot.”

“Always is.” Stiles says. Then he’s pulling a big brother move and putting his arm around Liam, Derek taking his hand off of Stiles and moving away.

“I know you helped convince Scott to take me in, and then helped him teach me control and everything. Even though you chained me up to a tree, I do appreciate it.” Liam says.

“I just don’t want you to refuse Scott.” Stiles says, “I know that you’re younger than the rest of the pack, and that you don’t feel as strong as a connection as some of us do, but if you left then Scott would feel like such a failure. You’re his beta, his first real beta and the one that he actually chose.”

“You don’t like me.” Liam says.

“That’s not true.” Stiles shakes his head a little, “I don’t dislike you, we’re not friends necessarily but I do feel like we’re becoming friends.”

“That's the problem, all of you guys are still getting used to me and even though you have each other, I don't have anyone. I want someone in the pack that’s there for me. I know that Allison and I have gotten close, and I get along with everyone but there’s not a person that’s just my friend you know?”

“I think that’s something that you need to take up with Derek…” Stiles hesitates and glances to where Derek is looking a little skeptical, “And Scott, you’ll have to have a meeting because that’s not my job to do.”

“Stiles, don’t you get it? You’re the mediator between those two. You’re the one who gets them to make decisions and I need to know that you think my opinions are valid.”

“Of course they are.” Stiles says, looking a little shocked over to Liam who smiled a little, “You’re young but you’re not a complete idiot.”

“And you’re old but you’re not a complete loser.” Liam smirks back. “And you always have our best interests in line.”

“Of course.” Stiles says with a smile, then he’s reaching out for Derek and moving away from Liam who hesitates once he stands up off the bed and turns to look at Stiles. He doesn’t say anything though and it takes a second for Stiles to realize what he’s waiting for, “I’ll talk to them, Liam. But, I can’t promise you anything.”

“Thank you.” Liam gushes. 

Just as he’s about to step out of the door, Derek is calling for him to stop, “Liam, talk to Mason. Bring him to the pack meeting. He can’t hear about everything until we’ve talked about it more, and you’ve got to talk to Scott even before you can bring him but I think you’re right. And Mason is smart, he’d be an asset.”

Liam’s smile lightens up a little bit more and he heads out of the room calling back that he’ll send Allison up in a couple of minutes. Stiles smiles to Derek who just gives a half sort of nod and tells him, “You’d have another human then.”

“Until Mason asks for the bite.”

“He won’t. He’s a lot like you, he likes being the human and he’s good at being the human. I think that he wants to be in the pack to help, and for no other reason.”

“Is it bad that I don’t want to know what Allison has to say about me?” Stiles mutters to Derek quietly, not wanting any prying werewolf ears to hear him and recited what he’s saying without thinking.

“What is it that you’re so worried about?” Derek asks, “You guys have a good relationship, you’ve always seemed relatively close.”

“But she’s the one Scott abandoned me for.” Stiles interrupts, “She’s the one who took my best friend away from me. When I was holding you up in the pool, he ignored my call because he was with her. I know it’s not her fault, because Scott chose to ignore me, but I still feel like it’s a little bit her fault.”

“That can’t be it. You’ve forgiven them for that, you did a long time ago.”

Stiles flexed his hands where they rested on his knees and leaned over into Derek a little bit. He gave his shoulder a squeeze and just waited for Stiles to admit the real reason. “She saw me Derek. When Gerard had me. When he had Erica and Boyd. She saw and didn’t do anything about it. I know that it’s because he’s her family and she was conflicted but they were in so much pain and she just walked away.”

Allison walked in then, looking just as nervous as Stiles’ speech pattern had been and Derek was still reeling from what he’d said leaving them all to look like they were at a loss for just what the next step was. She sat on the edge of the bed, looking up at them and then glancing back to her lap every few seconds.

“Ready?” Stiles asks, shaking himself out and slapping on a smile.

“Yeah Stiles, ready.” She says.

Then they’re standing up and pulling each other into hugs. Stiles doesn’t say anything, just lets the pain set in for a little bit while Allison does her best to get the courage up to talk. They both start at the same time, throwing them back into quiet for another minute.

“I’m so sorry Stiles.” Allison says. “I didn’t know he was going to hurt you.”

“He had me in the basement Allison!” Stiles almost yells. He feels weird, like they shouldn’t be hugging while having this argument that they’d shoved down for years. “What the hell did you think he was going to do?”

“I don’t know! I didn’t want to think about it!” She says. Stiles starts to pull back, so he could just grab her hand and they could make eye contact. She doesn’t let it happen though, pulling him back close to her and saying, “No, I can’t look at you while we do this.”

“You know what your grandpa does, you know that he stabbed Scott, that he strung up Erica and Boyd, and that he used me as a message. How, in any universe, did you think that he wasn’t going to hurt me?”

She shrugged her shoulders in his hold, trying to figure out just what to respond to that with, “He’s my grandpa Stiles.”

“And I thought we were your friends.”

“I thought that he might’ve recruited you!” Allison lets slip out.

Stiles does draw back then, forcing her hands off of his back and just barely keeping contact with her through brushing their fingers, “You thought that I might turn my back on my best friend, on people that we go to school with?”

“Scott did!” Allison points out, “He helped!” 

“He helped because of you! He wouldn’t have done that if it wasn’t for you!” Stiles grunts again, his hands starting to shake and his eyes starting to water, “I would never do that.”

Neither of them speak, Stiles looking at the ground as Allison looks over his head at the wall. Derek isn’t looking at them either, to give them the illusion of privacy as they worked through what was clearly a bigger problem than they would’ve admit in another situation.

“You would ignore it again.” Stiles sounds a little defeated, sounds like he knew it all along but didn’t want to admit it out loud, “If the situation happened, even now, you’d just look away.”

She bites her lip, tipping her head up to keep from crying, “No, I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t let him hurt you guys but… but I wouldn’t fight him. You can’t expect me to fight my family, Stiles. What if it was your dad?”

“My dad wouldn’t do anything like that!” Stiles snaps, glaring at her for even thinking it and doing his best to keep from just walking away and giving up. “Never, ever compare my dad to your grandpa. They are not even in the same dimension let alone in the same league.”

“You would protect your dad at all costs.” Allison says calmly, “Besides, my grandpa is dead so what does it matter anymore.”

Stiles looks over to Derek and says to him, “I think I want to quit.”

“No Stiles, work through it.” Derek instructs, “Remember, you don’t have to agree.”

He braces his shoulders, hissing in pain when there’s the feeling of knife twisting in his gut, how ironic. He looks up at Allison again, she’s finally looking at him, and he squeezes his eyes shut for just a second before saying, “Pack is family Allison. That means that what you feel for them, you should feel for us.”

“I do.” She says, looking slightly bewildered, “Stiles, you know I do, but I didn’t then. I didn’t think of any of you as anything other than classmates. Come on, do you think I wouldn’t do the same for any of you now? I would save you now, I would’ve gotten you out even if I hadn’t confronted my grandpa to do it.”

“But, you didn’t.” Stiles says. “And you stopped Scott from helping too.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” She rambles, “I’m sorry you got hurt, I’m sorry I let Erica and Boyd get hurt, and I’m sorry that Scott turned his back on you. Okay? Do you believe me?”

Derek watches as Stiles studies her, he’s weak on his feet and he’s barely holding himself together but his face is set in stone. He’s not giving her anything to go off of, no change in facial expression. His chest heaves a couple of times, and his free hand flexes and digs into his pants. 

“Yeah. I believe you.”

Allison moves forward to hug him as his legs start to buckle just as Derek moves forward too. She manages to give him a quick squeeze and then Derek is pulling him away, helping him sit on the side of the bed and looking at Allison running a hand through her hair to stop it from shaking. She moves forward just enough to give Stiles a chance to tell her to back off but he just gives her a short smile and a little head nod. 

She returns the nod and smiles a little bit, “One more. I’ll send up Jackson.”


	21. Drowning (Erica)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles regretted that metaphor the second he got to the pool at the school. When he looked into the pool he saw Erica’s blonde hair floating above her, her feet latched to the bottom of the pool and only the occasional bubble finding its way to the surface. Stiles felt his heart leap into his throat as he stripped off the jacket that was around his shoulders, making sure his phone stayed with that. His shoes came off next and then he was diving in and swimming as quickly as he could to her feet.

Once Stiles had his magic back he decided that he wasn’t going to take it for granted. He decided he was going practice and figure out just what kind of things he could do. He wanted to see what kind of magic would best help the pack.

Derek insisted that when he was training someone was there with them, just like if anyone else were to be doing special training. Stiles didn’t mind but he did always kind of feel like he was going to hurt one of them with a spell gone wild. Luckily, werewolves healed quickly.

The first time he actually got to use this, the first time that all the practice finally ended up coming in handy was when the territory was overrun with two of the three threats at the same time. The hunters and the pack. Stiles was still holding on to a little shred of hope that they weren’t actually working together, they were just kind of acquaintances, but he was proven wrong when he found himself all alone in the middle of the town in the dead of night with no recollection of how he got there.

So, he did his flashy new magic and pretty soon there was a map ghosting its way into the ground, like someone who was an excellent artist had drawn it down all around him with chalk. He turned in a slow circle, taking it all in and finding each member of the pack scrawled onto it.

If they were lit up, they were safe; if they were dark, they were in trouble; if they were an X, they were dead. Half the pack was lit up and half the pack was dark but he took in a huge sigh of relief when he didn’t see a single X on the map.

He was immediately typing a message out to every person who was lit up and instructing them to go find the person closest to them, the person who was in trouble that they could get to the fastest. It took him a second to construct the texts, as quickly and efficiently as possible while also getting them all the information that they needed.

First was Aiden: ‘Kira is a mile east of you. It looks like she’s in a residential area so be careful. Be prepared.’

Next was Scott: ‘Ethan is very close to you, I can’t tell which way because you keep moving but he’s close. Find him and help him. Be careful.’

Third was Peter: ‘Liam is half a mile north of you, farther out of town. Go help him.’

Then it was Boyd: ‘Allison is right by the Hale house, not very far from you. Go to her.’

Derek: ‘Find Jackson. He’s farthest out of town and you’re fastest. Go straight south out of here. Danny should be on the way to him. Get them both.’

Malia was next: ‘Cora is three miles away from you, toward the vet clinic. She may be inside it. Be careful.’

Second to last was Lydia: ‘Isaac is back at his dad’s house. Get there fast.’

Then he was constructing a quick mass text to them to tell them the general information: ‘Half of us are in trouble, half are fine. It might be a trap but we need to help them. Be careful and text when you’ve found everyone. We’ll reconvene once we find a safe place.’

Then Stiles was heading to the school because that’s where Erica was. He waved his hand over the map quickly to erase it and then he was taking off, sprinting toward the place that they’d all been beat up in in one way or another.

It took him at least five minutes and every second longer he was worried that he was letting her down, that she was going to be dead when he got there and it’d result in the pack falling apart starting with Boyd drowning in sorrow.

Stiles regretted that metaphor the second he got to the pool at the school. When he looked into the pool he saw Erica’s blonde hair floating above her, her feet latched to the bottom of the pool and only the occasional bubble finding its way to the surface. Stiles felt his heart leap into his throat as he stripped off the jacket that was around his shoulders, making sure his phone stayed with that. His shoes came off next and then he was diving in and swimming as quickly as he could to her feet. 

It looked like cuffs and Stiles had no idea how Erica’s heart was still beating so solidly but he wasn’t going to question it. He was wrapping a hand around the metal around her ankles, taking another second to focus on just what he needed to do and then thanking whatever deity was helping him when they came unlatched without a fuss. Erica started floating then, and when Stiles’ hand wrapped around her wrist he found that the pulse had slowed all the way down to a stop. 

Stiles pulled her as quick as he could over to the side of the pool, getting her head above water as soon as he possibly could and then climbing out of the pool, pulling her up with him. He knelt at her side for a few seconds, waiting to figure out just what he was supposed to do at the moment.

Then he was starting compressions on her chest and mumbling, begging for her to wake up and cough out the water trapped in her lungs. Out of the corner of his eye he could see his phone lighting up in new texts every couple of seconds and he hoped with everything in him that it was good news. But he didn’t stop, his hands stayed fisted together and he knew he was breaking ribs as he pushed down on Erica until her eyes were flying open. 

“Oh my god, thank god. Erica. Okay. Come on.” He helps turn her on her side and pats her back reassuringly as she spits up all the water in her lungs. It takes a few minutes for her to get her breath back, a few minutes to shake the water logged thoughts out of her brain and then she’s smiling up at Stiles and he crunches over a little bit more. “You’re okay.”

“I’m okay.” She promises, grabbing a hold of one of his hands and then sitting up enough to hug him, “Thank you, thank you for not giving up on me.”

“Never.” Stiles says, pulling back and then reaching for his phone. 

He types out a quick message to the group: ‘I’ve got Erica. We’re at the school.”

Then he holds the phone enough that Erica can read along with him as they glance through everyone else’s texts of promise that they’d gotten to whoever they were supposed to get to. He could hear Erica sigh when she found out that Boyd had never been in trouble and her head went to rest on Stiles’ shoulder. “What’s next?”

“We find somewhere to go.” Stiles says, “We figure out what to do next and make sure everyone is actually okay.”

Then Erica is jolting upright and Stiles follows her eyes to where two people are walking toward them. One is holding a rifle, resting it on her shoulder while the man next to her looks dirty an unkempt, like he’d run through the woods and not taken a shower. Stiles about growled when he saw that the woman looked like she was still drying off, and he knew that Erica was smelling the chlorine imbedded into the hunters clothes.

Stiles groans in annoyance because he was tired. His arms were sore and he could still hear a little rattle in Erica’s breathing. He felt a few more texts on his phone and knew that the others were probably face to face with the same situation. The two didn’t hesitate after their first glance over the situation and were moving straight for Stiles and Erica.

The two of them moved away, away from the pool and Stiles made sure he stayed between Erica and the water. He gave her hand a final squeeze and was then getting ready for whatever the two of them were going to have to do. The hunter lifts her gun, adjusting her grip around it before pointing it straight at Stiles. The dirty man is shifting, at the same time as Erica, and then they’re leaping for each other with Stiles throwing up his hands as the gun spit out shot after shot.

He felt like he was in the Matrix, he was pulling a Neo and dodging the bullets while others dropped and fell to the ground right in front of him. The hunter was glaring as she kept aiming, taking just a few seconds to think of a new strategy. That has her smirking slightly before turning her gun towards Erica and the wolf that were still going at it.

Stiles didn’t understand why she’d risk hitting her own acquaintance but then he realized that with the hunters aim, she probably wouldn’t accidently hit anything, ever. It has Stiles moving closer to them and trying to make sure that he’s still out of the way and not getting in the way of Erica’s own fight. The hunter is switching back and forth from aiming at Erica and then switching back to Stiles which keeps him from being able to try and shoot a spell at her. She’s smart.

Erica lets out a yelp and Stiles gets his second burst of adrenaline. He manages to get the shield he’s holding up to be more of a trampoline surface. That means that instead of the bullet’s dropping to the ground, they’re flipping back and flying at the hunter. That takes her by surprise and she doesn’t even think to stop shooting until a bullet is lodged in her thigh and another find its home in her stomach. Stiles runs forward as the gun moves from pointing at either of them and manages to twist it out of her arms and then use the butt of it to knock her out. 

The lack of bullets flying at Erica allows her to pin the werewolf to the ground and land a solid punch to the side of his head, knocking him out as well. Once they each catch their breaths, Erica is laughing a little bit and Stiles is afraid she’s having some sort of manic episode until he looks over and sees that it’s only relief on her face.

“Stiles, you’re bleeding.” Erica says, grabbing a hold of his left arm and turning it in a way that makes him wince. He cranes his neck to see his bicep leaking out a steady stream of blood and allowing it to drip down onto the floor. 

“It’s okay, it was just a graze.” Stiles promises, pulling his phone out. Somehow, through all of this, it had escaped unscathed. “The only group that hasn’t updated again is Derek’s. He was with Jackson and Danny.”

“He’s okay. Do we know where we’re meeting?” Erica asks, turning to pick up the sweatshirt that Stiles had dropped on the ground and then gesturing for him to put his shoes on as well. He pulls them onto his feet and then takes the sweatshirt from her, pulling it over his arms and trying not to since when the fabric clings to the open wound.

“Hale house I guess. I wouldn’t have figured it safe but apparently the others do. It’s fair enough though I suppose, we were all already attacked.”

“Let’s go.” Erica says, grabbing his good arm and starting to pull him along, “You need to get that bleeding stopped. Even if it didn’t do any damage losing blood isn’t helping anything.”

Stiles uses his right hand to go up and wrap it around. A couple of seconds to compose himself and he squeezes it a little tighter, blatantly ignoring the blood that seeps through his fingers. Erica looks a little worried but she doesn’t say anything, instead just keeps pulling him along and getting them out into the fresh air.

“You should tell your dad what happened. To the hunter and wolf, get someone down here to clean up because a coach or teacher walking isn’t exactly the best case scenario.” Erica says.

Stiles hands her his phone and watches her dial for his dad and calm him down quickly when he freaks out that it isn’t Stiles on the other end. Then she tells him what happened and that the pack would be at the Hale house once they figured things out. Once she hangs up the phone it’s immediately starting to ring again and she hands it to Stiles, saying that it’s Derek.

“We’re fine.” Derek promises right away, “It just took us a bit, we weren’t ready for them but we’re all alright. We’ll be at the house pretty soon. Where are you guys at?”

“Just leaving the school.” Stiles tells him, “It’ll take us a while too, we don’t have a car or anything so it’ll be a walk to my house to get the jeep if it’s even there.”

Just as he hangs up the phone, a car is squealing up next to him and they both smile over to see Scott and Ethan pulling over in Scott’s mom’s car. Scott is smiling out to them, his face dropping a bit when he sees the blood but Stiles just shakes his head a little, “It’ll be fine, just got skimmed. It’s okay.”

“Get in then.” Ethan says, getting out of the passenger seat and opening the back door for them. Erica smirks and slides into the front seat, earning a punch on the arm from him before Ethan is pushing Stiles into the car and following a second later.

“Wrap something around that.” Scott says, “I don’t want to have to clean up blood.”

“Sensitive Scott.” Stiles smirks. “Thanks for the empathy.”

“You said you were fine!” Scott defends, “I was just taking your word for it!”

Ethan is pulling Stiles’ sweatshirt off and then rips one of the sleeves from it, wrapping it tight around Stiles’ upper arm despite his protest about the destruction of one of his favorite sweatshirts. “You’re welcome.” Ethan grunts in response.

Once they’re all at the house, sitting around the living room, it finally hits most of them. There’s a lot of blubbering, a lot of people hugging and thanking each other. Derek gets a hold of Stiles and when Stiles can’t hold in the little sound of pain, he’s jolting back and his eyes are flying all over him. They land on the half assed attempt at a wrap that Ethan had done and then he’s pulling him into the dining room.

Allison is already in there with Peter helping her splint her wrist which is turning ten different shades of purple and blue and she glances up to the two of them with a little smile, “We’re all okay.”

“We’re okay.” Derek says, pushing Stiles into one of the chairs and grabbing some gauze and wrap out of the open first aid kid. He pulls a little too tight on the final wrap and is immediately pulling the pain that he caused with a guilty look at Stiles.

Instead of saying anything about it Stiles asks, “Are we going to discuss war stories? Tell everyone what happened and what we found when we got there?”

“I suppose we’ll have to.” Peter says, not looking at either of them and keeping his focus on the final wraps he’s doing around Allison’s wrist, “We need to know what they were doing and how they managed to leave us all alone and confused spread around the town.”

“We’ll get to it.” Derek says, “We just need a little bit to relax I think. Erica’s heartbeat skyrocketed when she heard water running and Isaac hasn’t spoken yet. He’s clinging to Cora like there’s no tomorrow and he can’t look Lydia in the eye so I think we just need a little bit.”

“Then let’s put some lasagna in the oven!” Stiles says, clapping his hands together, “I saw that there was like six in the freezer last time I checked so I’ll throw them in quick. You should go make sure they’re all alright though, go do your little alpha thing with Scott.”

A quick kiss on the head and Derek is leaving him to head to the kitchen. After a few minutes of Stiles struggling to get a good grip on the huge pans of lasagna with only one hand he hears someone else come in and take it from him, putting it in the already open oven. Stiles looks up to see Scott and he studies him a little, “What’re you doing here?”

“Derek says that you told him to come with me and told him we should do our alpha thing. Now I’m in here doing my alpha thing with my best friend. So, are you alright?”

“I’m fine Scott.” Stiles says, rolling his eyes, “I meant the others.”

Scott puts the third lasagna in the oven and shuts it, then pushing the fridge shut when Stiles opens it to shuffle through, “Stiles, you are part of the others. Obviously. What happened with you and Erica?”

“She was chained to the bottom of the school pool.” Stiles shrugs, “It’s fine. We’re okay. She’s okay and that’s what matters.”

“You aren’t having flashbacks to when you had to hold Derek up in the pool?” Stiles’ hands drop down on the counter just a little too loudly and it has Scott nodding his head knowing that he had pinned down what the worry was, “It’s okay to not be okay. None of us are. Ethan was hanging upside down from a rafter of an old house and it took me minutes to get him woken up. I thought I was too late. We are all worse for wear but you have to admit it.”

“Scott, I’m fine.” Stiles says, “Derek’s fine. Erica’s fine. It’s okay.”

Scott grabs a hold of his shoulders then, forcing Stiles to look at him, “Stiles…”

“No, Scott. I don’t want to talk about this. I don’t want to do this.”

Scott pulls him forward into a hug and holds on a little tighter when Stiles tries to pull away. It takes a few minutes for him to stop fighting and Scott doesn’t let up the pressure at all. When Stiles finally hugs back he says, “Even if you’re not okay now, just make sure that you keep us in the loop. It’s not like we’re going to go to any pool parties any time soon but if it comes to it and we’re stuck at a lake with the next creep trying to kill us, I need to know if I need to look out for you a little differently than the others.”

“Fine.” Stiles said, pulling back. Then he nods a little bit and smiles at Scott, “And you’ll tell me if you have any freak-outs from remembering finding Ethan upside down.”

“Yeah.” Scott smiles, “I will.”

“Then you can go back to alpha-ing the rest of your pack.” Stiles says, “I’m good in here. I’ll make sure the dinner doesn’t get burnt.”

“Derek’s kind of busy making his way through the pack, he won’t miss me for now. I can help. You always try and get us to eat too healthy and today is definitely a day to eat crappy. So I’m going to make some cheesy bread for us to stuff our faces with and you can’t say a word about it.” 

“Cheesy bread it is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is another chapter I could add to if you wanted me to write about everyone else and who they went to find (like how Scott had to save Ethan, etc.) but it's up to you!


	22. Side Effects (Scott)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Scott… no, no, no.” Stiles mumbles, his hands dropping when he realized the witch had already escaped out the window in the room which had been smashed. He puts them down onto Scott, pushing against the blood that is slowly seeping out around the spear. It was probably about four inches around, and imbedded all the way through his lower left side. “Hey, talk to me. Okay? Stay with me here Scotty.”
> 
> “I’m here. Always here.” Scott promises, his hand going up to wrap around one of Stiles forearms, “Just pull it out.”

It didn’t take long for the final threat to come around and take their shot. The final coven was there and making their presence known. This time, though, they were focused on terrorizing the town instead of going straight for the pack. It was a good strategy, it kept them all on their toes and it was making them spread themselves thin to protect the town.

Derek was worried about them attacking families, going after Ms. McCall or the Sheriff to get to Scott and Stiles. He was also concerned that the killings were either ritualistic and helping them to gain power or they were just that in love with killing. 

On the bright side (or whatever was considered the brightest thing in their sort of situation) it didn’t look like this coven was nearly as enthusiastic about screwing with their mate bonds, they’d just been playing along with the other coven and had been under a little pressure to continue with their work. Once the other coven had been neutralized, this one just wanted revenge on the pack that had taken down all of their friends. It seemed fair enough, disregarding the reasons.

They were taking turns sweeping the town, someone always on alert through the night and a pair always making sure that before they turned in for the night, the town seemed clear and then they did the same thing again in the morning.

That morning, it was Scott and Stiles on the sweep. It was nice. They hadn’t spent a lot of time alone together the past few months because of the absurd amount of chaos that had been surrounding the pack so even a routine thing like a town sweep. They were in Stiles’ jeep, making their way through the town street by street and finally getting to talk to each other without prying ears listening in on everything that they said.

“So… How’re you and Derek?”

Stiles rolled his eyes as he glanced at Scott, taking a hand off the wheel to give him a light punch in the arm. “We’re alright. Promise.” Scott tilts his head a little bit, his historical sign of asking Stiles to tell him more without actually saying anything, “We’re good Scott. It’s just been so hectic recently that we can’t get a minute to just talk to each other and figure out what we feel. You know?”

“Yeah,” Scott nods and gives him a little smile, “He cares about you. So much more than I thought it was possible to care about someone until I met Kira.”

Stiles face lights up a little bit as he turns to look at Scott again, “Did your guys’ bond grow? Do you have a mate bond now?”

Scott looks like he’s glowing as his smile lights up even more, “Yeah, we are. I wanted you to know first. I’m sure she’s telling Allison or Cora today but I wanted to make sure that you knew. We got to talking that night after we’d all been dropped places, you know? Aiden had gone to find her, he saved her, and I saved his twin. It worked out kind of funnily. We finally got to really figure things out and we used the technique from your whole ‘get my magic back’ exercise.”

“I’m so happy for you.” Stiles says genuinely, “It is kind of a filling feeling isn’t it?”

“Yeah, like something I didn’t know was missing is finally in place.” Scott agrees, “I wish that we could’ve done it months sooner but I also think that this is the best time for it to happen. I couldn’t be happier.”

Stiles slowed his car down then; they were close to the outside of town and Stiles had seen someone off slinking into one of the old apartment buildings. Normally, he wouldn’t think twice about it. They were in a sketchier part of town and people were always in and out at odd hours. But, this person had been dressed so nicely, so put together that there wasn’t a chance that they lived in that building and didn’t work at this time of day. 

“What? What did you see?” Scott asks, his eyes flashing around the perimeter of the car and rolling the window down to see if he could get a scent.

“A person, apartment building.”

“Oh wow Stiles, someone going somewhere that people live. Crazy.” Scott rolls his eyes and turns back to Stiles, ignoring the non-threat that Stiles had slowed down for.

“No, I swear, something’s off.” Stiles says. He pulls the car to the side of the road and is getting out before Scott can ask another question. Scott groans before following him and staying a couple steps back until they get into the building. Then he’s grabbing a hold of Stiles’ arm and stopping the both of them. “Smell something?”

“Yeah.” Scott says, “Stay aware.”

The two of them keep going and follow the scent up the stairs and into a bashed in door a few floors up and to the left. Scott went in first and just as Stiles would’ve stepped over the threshold he heard a pained grown from Scott. Then there was a drop and Stiles was flying into the room and throwing his hands up in a defensive shield before he was going to his knees next to Scott who was on the ground with a spear of wood through his abdomen.

“Scott… no, no, no.” Stiles mumbles, his hands dropping when he realized the witch had already escaped out the window in the room which had been smashed. He puts them down onto Scott, pushing against the blood that is slowly seeping out around the spear. It was probably about four inches around, and imbedded all the way through his lower left side. “Hey, talk to me. Okay? Stay with me here Scotty.”

“I’m here. Always here.” Scott promises, his hand going up to wrap around one of Stiles forearms, “Just pull it out.”

“I can’t.” Stiles says, “It’s caused too much damage, you wouldn’t be able to heal from it as fast as you’d be losing blood. So… just, just let me call the pack. We’ll figure it out.”

“No!” Scott snaps, his hand tightening slightly, “We can’t wait! It hurts Stiles, I can’t wait. You have to do something. Please. Please just take care of it.”

“Okay,” he takes a breath to center himself and then he moves the arm Scott’s not clinging to up so it’s holding onto the stake, “I have an idea, but you’ve got to trust me. It might get worse before it gets better so please, just trust me.”

“I trust you, I trust you.” Scott mumbles, “Please, just get it out.”

“If it gets too much we can take a break.” Stiles assures, “Just keep talking to me, okay? No matter what I want you to talk to me so I know you’re with me.”

“Okay,” Scott says, nodding his head and then taking in a painful breath, “Do it.”

Stiles starts pulling, cringing when he feels the tug of Scott’s already healing skin clinging to the stake that coming loose painful centimeter by centimeter. With the other hand he’s pushing in as much healing as he can, absently listening to what Scott was going on about.

“I’m glad you have Derek,” He was saying, “You deserve to have someone care about you the way he does. But, if he ever does anything to hurt you, I’ll kill him. I don’t care that he’s an alpha too.”

Stiles smirks a little bit as he pulls a little harder, willing the process to move faster as he watches his hand push all the healing power that he can muster into Scott. He chances a glance at his face and feels slightly calmer when his face has just a little more color than last time, “He won’t hurt me. But I do believe that you could take him, you’re pretty terrifying when you’re angry. If Kira hurts you, I’ll… I don’t know, give her the silent treatment or something.”

Scott lets out a wet cough and says, “Wow, thanks for that!”

Another little smile and Stiles has the stake halfway out. The blood is pooling underneath him from the hold in his back but it looks less than what it would’ve been had Stiles not been pushing the healing which gave him the incentive to keep going. “Scott, keep talking.”

Scott nods slightly and says, “I love you Stiles, if anything happens, I just want you to know that.”

“Nothing is going to happen.” Stiles snaps immediately, “I’m right here, okay? Nothing will happen to you on my watch. I don’t want an angry Kira after me, she’s brutal.”

They both go quiet as Stiles focuses on pulling out the last little bit and he’s yanking his sweatshirt off and pushing it onto Scott with one hand and using the other to pull the pain instead of push the healing. Hopefully that would allow Scott to heal himself while Stiles just kept him comfortable.

“I wouldn’t live without you.” Stiles mutters, making sure he doesn’t look up to Scott because then he’d see those puppy dog eyes and it’d probably make him cry. Forgive him for being in an emotional state right now but he couldn’t risk his feelings getting the better of him at the moment.

Scott’s hand wanders up from Stiles’ arm and to his shoulder, giving it a tight squeeze and promising, “I wouldn’t be able to live without you either. You’re my best friend, you’re my brother. Okay?”

Stiles is pulling Scott so he’s on his side and he cranes his neck to look at his back. He lets out a sigh of relief when he notices that the blood is just barely dripping out now. The front of him isn’t as far along in the healing process but it did look like he was finally starting to breathe in a steady pattern instead of the deep breath, shallow breath, no breath pattern he’d had before. 

“Yeah, okay.” Stiles finally responds, “Let’s get you out of here. Alright?”

“Please.” Then Scott starts to sit up and Stiles is bearing most of his weight, an arm wrapping around his shoulder blades and holding him still until he seems to be okay again. Scott nods and then they’re standing up, most of Scott’s weight resting on Stiles as they start towards the door, not caring about the blood they’ve left behind. 

It takes nearly five minute for them to get down the two flights of stairs they’d climbed. Almost every step they take he has to wait, push a little healing and pull a little pain, and then they’d continue. Scott looked guilty, he looked like he didn’t want Stiles to be doing anything for him but he was too weak to protest.

Once they finally made it to the jeep, Stiles was helping him up into the passenger seat. Stiles climbed into the drivers’ side and they both looked at each other for a second before they were slumping a little bit in on themselves and resting their heads back on the seat. Then they just sat there, Stiles hand finding its way over to rest on Scott’s abdomen and continuing to do everything he could. Scott starts to push him away but Stiles persists and tells him, “Let me help you. You’ve done this for me a hundred and nineteen times it seems like, now let me help you.”

“You don’t have to take the pain, I can handle it.” Scott tells him. 

“Whenever I say that you just brush me off. So consider this me doing the same thing to you. You’d want to help me, so I want to help you. I also hate seeing you in pain, you literally looked like a kick puppy whenever it happens.” 

Scott looks like he’s going to argue again but then he closes his eyes a little bit and lets himself just be taken care of, which never seems to happen. For a few more minutes they just stay silent and Scott lets himself heal. When he looks like he’s about back to normal, he gives Stiles’ hand a pat and pushes it towards the wheel, “Let’s head back to the house.”

“Good idea. You should probably call Kira, or Derek. I’d recommend Kira because she probably knew you were hurt but I have to throw Derek in because he knows I’m with you and is probably worrying as well. But, you know, you do you.”

Scott pulls his phone out of his pocket and starts dialing Kira, explaining to her what happened and then telling her to relay the information to Derek. He promised they’d be back soon and then ended the call, turning to Stiles. “Want to stop and get something to eat quick? I mean, we were having a nice bro date until I got impaled on a wooden stake.”

“Yeah, we were.” Stiles smirks, “Sure, let’s get some food.”

They have a greasy meal as they drive leisurely back to the house and when they walk through the door the pack members that are there are swarming over Scott, checking him over and yanking up his shirt to see the damage. Stiles felt a surge of affection for the pack when he saw at least four werewolves pulling pain from Scott even though there wasn’t much to pull. Aiden, Ethan, Isaac, Cora, Allison, and Kira are there right away and Lydia follows after just a few seconds later with Derek in tow.

“Sit down.” Derek instructs, pulling Scott over to the couch and pushing him onto it. Kira follows right after, scooting up into his side and pulling his arm over her shoulders. “Are you okay?”

“I’m good.” Scott assures, smiling at Isaac as he takes a spot on his other side. “A little tired and a little annoyed but good overall.”

“What happened?” Ethan asked, still studying the slowly healing pink scar on Scott’s stomach. “That doesn’t look like a minor injury.”

“We saw a witch.” Stiles explains, “We got out of the car and followed her up the stairs and Scott went in the room first. He got stabbed them by a four inch wide spear and it went all the way through his left lower abdomen.” Stiles gestures to the spot on his own stomach even though they could all clearly see it on Scott.

“How did you get it out?” Lydia asks, her eyes widening a little bit in awe as she steps forward to trace her hand over the spot on Scott, “That would’ve bled out faster…”

“Faster than I could heal.” Scott interrupts with a small smile, “Stiles pulled some pain and pushed some healing to help my own healing kick in a little faster. Then we got the hell out of there. The witch disappeared right after stabbing me.”

“I’ll take another sweep then.” Derek says, “I doubt she’s really gone and she’s clearly not holding back. Scott, do you want Deaton to come by and take a look at you?”

“No, no, I should be alright.” Scott promises. 

“Alright, Stiles? You want to come with me?” Derek asks, turning to look at him.

“I can’t.”

“What? Why?” Derek surges toward him, “Are you hurt?”

“No, I just… what I did to help Scott will all reverse on itself if I don’t stay until he’s completely healed. It’s one of the side effects.” Stiles explains, “So, Scotty and I will be hanging out for a bit.”

“How long?” Derek asks.

“A couple hours.” Stiles says, “Just what it would take to heal a wound of this size if I hadn’t done anything at all.”

“Okay, then Isaac?”

“Yeah, okay.” Isaac nods, standing up and going to Derek, patting Stiles on the back as he goes by.

The pack clears out then, aside from Kira who is still petting Scott and running her hands through his hair at every turn. Scott mutters something to her about him being just fine but she doesn’t seem to want to stray far from him. Then Stiles is sitting down in Isaac’s vacated spot and flipping on the TV to some ridiculous comedian who had Scott laughing in a matter of seconds while Stiles just rolled his eyes and relaxed back into the couch.

The rest of the day was relatively uneventful. Derek and Isaac’s sweep hadn’t brought up anything new and the pack was then able to just lounge around and rest while Scott made sure that he was fully healed before he even let Stiles out of his sight. He was slightly more affectionate that day, and Stiles wasn’t going to complain because he loved cuddly Scott, but it made it so Scott was nudging his nose into Stiles’ neck at every other turn and giving him hugs right along with it. It seemed to peeve Derek a little bit because every scenting that Scott did, Derek echoed with his own. It was nice though, because since the whole constant touch issue Stiles and Derek had dealt with, he was feeling a little cold not being attached to someone at all hours of the day.

But, that night, Stiles was curled up into bed with Derek when his phone blared an obnoxiously loud ringtone. The one specified to Scott. Derek groaned and pulled a pillow over his face as Stiles blindly reached out and slapped at the bedside table, squinting to find the accept call button before putting it to his ear. “What the hell do you want Scott?”

“I’m bleeding.” Scott says, voice panicked and high, “Stiles! Stiles, I need you to come over.”

Derek is out of his pillow cave and looking up at Stiles with worry before turning just enough to turn on the light next to him. He hears just enough of what Scott says to start climbing out of bed, pulling on pants over his boxers and a tshirt that must’ve been worn three times already and then throwing one at Stiles who struggles to pull it over his head with just one arm, the other still holding the phone up to his ear.

“I don’t know what’s wrong!”

“Scott, it’s okay. I’m on my way now. Alright? Just stay calm. Is your mom home?”

“No, no she worked the night shift and Kira couldn’t stay over tonight. Please Stiles! Hurry!”

Stiles and Derek are climbing into the Camaro then, Derek squealing onto the road and flooring it towards Scott’s house, “Scott, we’re going as fast as we can to get there, just keep breathing. Where are you bleeding out of?”

“Where the spear was, but it’s not… there’s no hole… I don’t know!” Scott’s voice rises again and he’s mumbling something that Stiles can’t understand so he shushes Scott and lets him calm down for a little bit, “I need help.”

“We’re pulling up.” Stiles says, opening the door before Derek even shifts the car into park and sprinting up to the front door of the house. He groans when it is locked and rifles around for the key, shoving it into the lock and doing his best to turn it but his shaking hand isn’t allowing him to do it. Derek’s behind him then, pushing Stiles’ hands off gently before opening the door for him.

Stiles carelessly throws his phone to the ground and is crawling onto the bed next to Scott, shoving the blankets off of Scott and then pulling his tshirt up so he can try and see where the bleeding is coming from. “I don’t see anything, Scott… I can’t figure out how to stop it!”

Derek makes it to them then too, going to Scott’s other side and grabbing a hold of his hand, pulling the pain as Stiles sits in a frustrated silence. Scott is staring up at him though, with those stupid innocent eyes, and it looks like he’s just begging Stiles to do something but not willing to ask because he doesn’t want him to feel pressured.

“Okay, I’ll figure this out. We’ll be okay. You’re going to be okay.” Stiles says, “Just, stay calm. Okay?”

“Bro, you’re the one who’s really freaking out.” Scott says, smiling a little bit.

“Just take a breath Stiles,” Derek says calmly, “You can figure this out but you’ve got to think. Don’t think of it being Scott, think of it just being another person. You’ve got to stay objective.”

Scott nods in agreement and Stiles steels himself to say, “I think I need to cut it open.”

“What?” Scott and Derek both explode in unison. 

“I’m sorry Scott, I’m sorry.” Stiles blubbers, “But I think that I need to heal the whole thing otherwise this will keep happening. I didn't know that, I thought you could just heal on your own. I've never done the spell before. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Scott promises, “Just do it, alright?”

“What’re you going to cut it with?” Derek asks. Stiles glances up at him, a guilty look that has Derek shaking his head before Stiles can even ask, “No, no… you are not using my claw to slice open your best friend.”

Scott looks scared, looks like he wants to fight it but doesn’t know what he should say to argue. Stiles looks torn between not wanting to hurt Scott but not knowing what else to do and Derek just looks like he’s going to have an existential crisis, “It’s the best thing we’ve got. Derek, we don’t have time!”

Derek closes his eyes for a couple of seconds and then his hand is flipping out with his fingers going into claws. Stiles grabs a hold of his hand, positioning it so one of his fingers is in Stiles’ grip like a pencil. A few seconds after that, Stiles is bringing it down toward Scott and giving him another apologetic look before he’s pushing down.

Scott tenses up in pain, even with Derek pulling as much as he can, and fights the urge to shove Stiles’ hand away. Once the skin is broken, all Stiles can see is a mess of muscle and blood and he thanks his lucky stars that he is right because no matter how healed Scott had looked on the outside, his insides were all awry. 

His face is looking pale again, just like it had when they were at the sketchy apartment building. “Okay, it’ll be okay Scott. I can fix this but you’ve got to stay awake, just like earlier. Focus on Derek and I, tell us all about anything.”

Scott starts talking, Derek responding to him every so often so Stiles could stay focused on the healing that he was doing. It took almost an hour of Stiles pushing everything he had in him into Scott as Derek pulled all he could before the wound was covered in a nice pink scar again. Stiles then fell to a laying position on the bed next to Scott, pulling a very werewolf move by pushing his face into Scott’s shoulder.

“How’re you feeling?”

“I’m okay.” Scott says, “It feels better than last time, it feels like it’s not as shakily put together. You know what I mean?”

“Yeah, got it.” Stiles said in relief, “Thank god I didn’t hurt you more.”

“Well, technically…” Scott starts to joke but then Stiles is looking up at him with such a guilty expression that he stops right way and smiles slightly, “Stiles, it’s okay. You did what you needed to do. No one else would’ve known to do that and no one else could’ve fixed me. Alright?”

“I’m staying tonight.” Stiles says. Then he looks up to Derek who is still sitting rigid on the side of the bed, “You can go home if you want but I just want to make sure that nothing happens to him.”

“I’ll stay downstairs.” Derek says with a little nod, “I’ll keep an ear out, you two just do whatever you need to do. Nothing will happen.”

Stiles gives him a smile and it grows a little more when Derek gives him a quick kiss before heading down the stairs. Scott is staring at Stiles then and he asks, “Since when do you guys just casually kiss?”

“It’s mainly stressful situations.” Stiles admits, “Or when he’s tired and doesn’t really know what he’s supposed to say. I think it helps him relax a little bit, and I don’t mind either.”

“Good.” Scott says, “Good for you guys.”

Scott scoots over a little bit then, pulling Stiles closer to him and then forcing him to roll over. Scott’s arm wraps around him and it has Stiles rolling his eyes a little bit, “You’re spooning me? Really?”

“Stiles, please… I just need this right now. I haven’t been able to just hang out with you for a really long time and I’ve missed it a lot. I’ve missed you.”

“You know, we never hung out like this before.” Stiles mutters, starting to come down from the adrenaline and starting to nod off, “So it’s not like this is normal.”

Scott tightens his hold a little bit and says, “You’re my best friend. You’ll always be my best friend and no one is going to take that away from me.”

“Course not.” Stiles promises, “Now it’s time to sleep. You need to heal and I need to heal from healing you. That was pretty intense.”

“Tell me about it.” Scott says with a little slur. Then just a moment later Stiles hears a little snore and the grip around him loosens just a little bit but doesn’t shuffle off of him at all. Instead of fighting it, Stiles relaxes into him the last bit more and then falls asleep as well.

The next morning, Scott’s managed to drool down onto Stiles’ neck and his body heat is making Stiles sweat but Stiles doesn’t pull away until he felt Scott jostle just enough to prove he was awake. The two were looking at each other then and both fell into a fit of laughter before rolling out of the bed and making their way downstairs.

Derek had already started cooking breakfast which had Scott laughing again as he found a spot at the kitchen table. Stiles swatted him on the back of the head before he was going over to help Derek with the last bit of cooking. After getting settled with plates of food at the table Scott is profusely thanking Derek for pulling his pain and then switching over to thank Stiles. 

“So, what’s the plan for today?” Stiles asks.

“We find the witches and get rid of them.” Scott answers.

“Solid plan.” Stiles smirks, “You might need some more details though.”

“We’ll split off, find them, and get rid of them.” Derek says, “Just like we always have. It’ll work and we’ll all be fine but it’s going to be stressful and difficult. They’re the last ones which means they’re probably the smartest. But we’re smarter.”

"We're a good pack." Scott agrees, "We can do this."


	23. Threat Neutralized (Derek)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You can’t die on me!” Stiles punctuates each word with a push on Derek’s chest, hands clasped together and fisted over his sternum, “After everything, you cannot die!”
> 
> “Stiles…” Scott’s grabbing a hold of his shoulder, voice quiet as he tries to get through to him, “It’s been almost fifteen minutes. There’s nothing else you can do.”
> 
> “I’m not giving up!” Stiles yells, his head turning just enough that Scott can see he’s starting to cry, “I can’t give up. He didn’t give up on me. That means I can’t give up on him.”

“You can’t die on me!” Stiles punctuates each word with a push on Derek’s chest, hands clasped together and fisted over his sternum, “After everything, you cannot die!”

“Stiles…” Scott’s grabbing a hold of his shoulder, voice quiet as he tries to get through to him, “It’s been almost fifteen minutes. There’s nothing else you can do.”

“I’m not giving up!” Stiles yells, his head turning just enough that Scott can see he’s starting to cry, “I can’t give up. He didn’t give up on me. That means I can’t give up on him.”

Scott nods a little bit then, scooting closer to Stiles so he’s kneeling next to Derek’s waist. Stiles is still pushing on his chest but his arms are aching and his movements becoming more and more stuttered. Isaac ends up kneeling across from him, he grabs a hold of Stiles’ arms and then puts his own in their place. It takes a while for Stiles to get the picture but then Isaac takes control of the compressions as Stiles goes and pushes air into him.

The rest of the pack is standing around them, nursing injuries and trying to get a hold of themselves. Scott and Isaac are switching between looking nervously at each other, at Derek’s pale and motionless face, and then at Stiles who was crying and locking lips with Derek to keep him breathing. Derek shouldn't have even been in the position. He'd been trying to be in too many places at once and Stiles had been almost a quarter mile away. 

Then, two witches were circling Cora and Derek lost it. He went after the both of them at the same time and even though he managed to get one down, the other was immediately seeking her own revenge. Her hand flew out and a spell hit Derek straight in the chest, dropping him to the ground in a matter of seconds.

Stiles knew what it was, knew that as soon as the witch dropped it meant she was aiming to kill. She was aiming to stop his heart in it's track and make it next to impossible to restart it, even if it meant her's stopped right along with his.

Cora was hunched over him within half a second but she was too confused as to what happened to do anything. Scott had watched, in fascinated horror, as it happened and he was yanking Stiles over and pushing him down next to Derek before going off to make sure the rest of the witches were taken care of. Stiles was starting CPR as soon as he hit his knees, and he showed no signs of stopping.

“Stiles…” Lydia says gently, coming forward and resting her hand on his shoulder, “It might be time to call it. I’m so sorry.”

But then both of Stiles hands are shoving Isaac’s away and he’s going back to doing to compressions, “Get away! All of you, get away.”

Scott is nodding at them, shooing them with his hands. They look hesitant but then Scott’s flashing his eyes and they take a step back, then a couple more to head back towards the house. Stiles hears Scott tell them that he’d call soon, and then his hand is on Stiles’ shoulder, “What’s your plan Stiles?”

Stiles turns to look at him, “Leave Scott.”

“You know I’m not going to do that.” Scott says calmly, “Now, tell me what you’re going to do because you’ve stopped compressions and I highly doubt that means you’ll give it up.”

“You can’t stop me.” Stiles says quietly, “Just… let me do what I have to do. Okay? Don’t, don’t pull me back and don’t yell.”

“What are you doing?” Scott’s voice is rising, nerves making him speak faster and his hand tugging at Stiles a little bit, “You… don’t do anything stupid!”

“It’s not stupid!” Stiles yells, all of his emotions causing the ground to tremor a little bit. It has Scott pulling back from him, his hands resting on the ground to steady himself, “He’s my mate. If he dies, I die next.”

That has Scott reeling a little because he knows that Stiles is being honest. He knows that Stiles will not cope if Derek is gone, especially if he’s the one who’s given up on him. So, he scoots back a little bit and nods when Stiles’ eyes find him again.

Then Stiles is putting both hands on Derek’s chest, splayed out to cover as much area as possible. He mutters something and is pushing his hands down a little harder. Then Scott sees his arms glow and the glow travels down into Derek’s chest. Nothing happens. Stiles sobs a little bit and takes a few seconds to do some compressions and push air back into his lungs. Then it happens again and Scott watches Derek arch up off the ground, eyes flying open and turning red before he lets out a howl so loud that the trees around them seem to bow over for a second or two.

“Stiles…” Scott whispers, eyes wide as he takes a few steps forward.

Stiles is hovering over Derek though, hands going to either side of his face and staring into his eyes. “You’re okay. Oh my god. It worked. You’re okay.”

Another sob and Derek is pulling Stiles down and slotting their mouths together. The rest of the pack is flying back to them, crowding around and taking turns glancing at each other and mumbling about how this was even possible. Scott is keeping focused on the two of them though, and he sees when Stiles droops a little bit. Derek’s arms are keeping a grip on him, squeezing his waist and then helping lower him down on the ground.

Scott rushes forward then, as Boyd does the same. Scott is grabbing a hold of Stiles’ arm while Boyd helps Derek move into a sitting position. Scott is then levering Stiles up, supporting him and keeping a hand on the back of his head so it doesn’t loll to the side. His eyes are open and he looks conscious but the rest of his body is limp and Scott is asking, “What do we need to do?”

“Deaton.” Stiles says quickly, “I’m okay. Just worn out, Derek’s probably going to pass out to. It’s what happens.”

That has Derek looking a little alarmed as he grabs a hold of Stiles’ hand and grumbles something about him being an idiot. But Stiles passes out a few seconds later and Derek follows right after that. Scott has a moment of panic before Lydia is at his side and saying, “Let’s go. The twins are already off getting the cars as close as they can. Allison is calling Deaton.”

Erica is going over to the other side of Derek then, helping Boyd lever him up and then they’re pulling him along toward where the cars would be waiting. Scott scoops Stiles up then, following their lead as the rest of the pack pokes around at both of them. Isaac is next to them right now, grabbing a hold of Stiles’ hand to see if there’s any pain. It seems to calm him down a little and he runs ahead to the lead position.

They get them into the cars a few minutes later, Aiden driving Stiles’ jeep and Ethan taking the wheel of the Camaro. Allison, Cora, and Isaac crawl into the tight back seat of the Camaro and then Erica and Boyd are gently putting Derek in the passenger seat. Scott does the same for Stiles, helping him into his car before he’s jumping in the back with Lydia and Danny.

The rest of the pack follows on foot until they get to the rest of the cars and then they’re taking off for the clinic as well. Once they get there, Stiles is already on the main table of the office with Derek on a cot not too far away. Deaton is hurriedly going back and forth between them, poking and prodding and occasionally putting his hand to their necks to check their pulses.

“What is going on?” Erica asks as she steps in, trying to find a place to stand in the crowded room. It looked like Scott refused to leave Stiles’ side, eyes never leaving his face as if he were making sure he’d know exactly when Stiles woke up. Cora was doing the same next to Derek, hand resting on his shoulder and she was occasionally pulling pain left over from when he’d been attacked.

“Stiles pushed all his magic into Derek.” Deaton says, “To save his life he had to push all he had into him. From what Scott explained, he might’ve used all his magic.”

“He’ll be okay though?” Lydia asks, “They’ll both wake up?”

“Yeah. They will.” Deaton assures.

“But Stiles won’t have his magic?” Jackson asks.

“I don’t know.” Deaton admits, “It’s really up to chance. Sometimes, spells like this take up everything to the point there’s nothing left and there’s nothing we can do about it. But, other times, the spells are used for a pure enough purpose that it’s kind of like it’s forgiven.”

“Well of course it was pure!” Allison says, “He did it to save his life! Derek was dead. He would be dead if Stiles hadn’t done that.”

“If he loses his magic again…” Malia starts, trailing off a little bit.

“We’ll lose him.” Danny finishes, “Last time he lost his magic he fell into a pit of depression.”

“Then let’s hope he’ll still have it.” Deaton says, ever so helpfully of course. “But, having all of you crowding around in here isn’t helping. Clear out, go to the waiting room. I’ll do everything I can to help both of them.”

Most of them trickle out, leaving Scott who acted like he hadn’t even heard him and Cora who scooted over Derek’s leg just enough that she could sit on the cot along with him. Deaton seems to find that alright, thinking that it was too much of a battle to try and get the two of them out.

They stay that way for almost an hour and no one really talks as they waited for the two to wake up. Scott does his best to keep calm but every minute that passed seemed to hike up his anxiety a notch more.

Then Derek is shooting up at the exact same time as Stiles. Scott keeps Stiles from falling off the side of the table but he can’t stop him from almost crumpling in relief when he sees Derek seemingly whole and healthy, “Oh my god. Thank god I didn’t kill you.”

Scott lets him up then and Stiles is going over and crushing Derek in a hug. Cora and Scott are left to observe awkwardly as they take their sweet time to comfort each other and assure each other they’re both okay. When that’s all said and done, Deaton clears his throat.

Stiles seems to know what he’s going to say before he speaks though and he smiles a bit, “I’m good, I can feel it. I’m okay.”

“What do you mean?” Derek asks.

“There was a risk that I’d lose my magic.” Stiles explains, “But it’s okay. It’s still there.”

Derek relaxed a little bit and tightened his grip on Stiles’ arm, “Let’s go home. We’ll figure out just what happened and if we’re in the clear.”

“We are.” Scott says with a little smile, “They’re all dead. We’re finally out of the woods for the coven and all of their acquaintances.”

Derek sighs in relief and wraps his arms around Stiles’ waist, essentially holding him on his lap and then he’s pressing his face into Stiles’ neck. He noses around for a couple of seconds before giving a couple of kisses and then pulling back, glaring at Scott’s annoyed look. Cora just smirks a little bit and gestures for the two of them to get up.

“Hey Derek…” Stiles says, standing with his hand in Derek’s as they start to head out toward the waiting room where the rest of them were waiting. Derek looked at him, raising an eyebrow, “We don’t have any threats tonight, we’re both healthy, you know what that means?”

Scott makes a choked off noise and stares at them in disgust, “Seriously? You both just about died. Derek, you did die. I’d hardly say you’re healthy!”

“Yeah, we’re going to discuss that.” Derek says seriously, looking at Stiles who rolls his eyes and proceeds to lift his free hand up to squeeze Derek’s face together. It takes a second but Derek cracks a smile and leans over just enough to kiss him before the rest of the pack is practically attacking them.

Stiles puts up his hands to shush them and promises, “I’m okay, my magic’s good, Derek’s okay, and we’re all home free for now. Let’s celebrate that before another group has a problem with us.”

There’s talking over each other and a general mess of discussions but after a while they seem to come to the decision that they’re all too dirty to go out to eat anywhere so they’d have to get food back to the house. Peter and Cora are put on that job while the rest of them find their way into cars.

“Stiles, you’re with me.” Derek says, yanking him along to the Camaro while Stiles points longingly at his jeep, “We have to talk and someone else can drive that home. No one will leave us alone unless we’re in the car so let’s go.”

Stiles pouts but nods and allows Boyd to drive his car because, honestly, Boyd is the only one that he’d give permission to if he’s given the opportunity to choose. The rest of them are too easily distracted and he’s well aware of that, Boyd on the other can manage to keep his eyes on the road for more than three seconds at a time.

Once in the car, Derek is turning to him and asking, “Did you genuinely think it was possible for you to die?”

Stiles shrugged a bit, messing with the hem on his sweatshirt as he sees the other cars all pull out and start to head for the house. “I don’t know. I mean, distantly I knew it was a possibility but I couldn’t not do it. You know?”

“Stiles!” Derek looks like he doesn’t know quite what to say and he has a hand scraping down his face to calm down, “I… I don’t know why you think I’d be okay with you killing yourself to save me.”

“I wasn’t killing myself!” Stiles proclaims, “I was keeping you alive because if you weren’t alive you know just as well as I do that I wouldn’t last long. I wasn’t doing it to join you in the grave if that’s what it came to, I was doing it to prevent that exact thing. And don’t you dare for a second act like you haven’t done idiotic things to save me!”

“Yeah, so you admit, it was idiotic!” Derek says, voice rising to meet the loudness of Stiles’.

Stiles groans and squeezes his hands together to keep from lashing out more, “No! That’s not the point! Damn it Derek! Can’t we just admit that sometimes we both do things that the other wouldn’t like in the face of imminent death? I tried to save you the normal way, I did CPR forever it felt like and nothing was changing! They were telling me you were dead! I didn’t have a choice! Derek, I felt you die! I felt it like it was over and it was the most crushing feeling, I can’t even explain it!”

Stiles doesn’t realize that he’s started crying again until Derek is reaching over and brushing them off his face with a sad sort of smile, “Okay, okay. Just breathe. I’m okay. I’m sorry. I was just scared that you were worse off. You know that. I’m sorry.”

Stiles nods and grabs ahold of his hand again, “We just have to both agree not to die on each other or be put in mortal danger.”

“That seems fair.” Derek smirks, “Not likely, but fair.”

Stiles is smiling again and the two lean in enough to kiss again, Derek grabbing a hold of the back of his head and keeping him held in tight. Once they did finally pull apart, they were both panting for breath and in a state of dishevelment that the rest of the pack would love to tease them for. But, they were also both blushing bright red and smiling so big that Derek just pulled him in to do it again.

“I love you.” Derek says, “Even if you didn’t try to save my life I’d still love you. No matter what, I’ll always love you.”

Stiles turns even redder than he was before and then says, “I love you too. And I’ll save your life, not try I’ll just do it, no matter what and forever. Alright? And you can’t argue with me every time it happens.”

“As long as you don’t argue when I try to save yours as well.” Derek agrees.

After one more quick kiss Derek is starting the car and pulling out onto the road. They make it back about five minutes after the rest of them got there and as soon as they walk in Scott is giving them one glance before rolling his eyes. “Did you have a nice make out session?”

Stiles lights up a little bit and runs at Scott. Scott turns around just in time for Stiles to jump up onto his back and give him a sloppy kiss on the cheek. “Scotty boy, we had a wonderful make out session. But we also had some things to talk about, you know, business and pleasure.”

Another eye roll and Scott is dropping him onto the couch, taking a seat next to him as Derek goes in to check in on the rest of the pack. “You alright? Honestly?”

“Good Scott, promise.”

“You and Derek?” Scott checks.

Stiles smiles at him, and his absolutely lack of subtlety, “We’re good. We talked it out and we’ve agreed that we can’t be mad at each other for saving each other’s life. Then we made out a little bit.”

Derek is back then and he drops onto Stiles’ other side. Scott raises an eyebrow at him that has Derek ducking his head and blushing, “Shut up Scott.”

“I didn’t say anything!” Scott says with a smile, putting his hands up defensively.

“You gave me a look!” Derek says.

“Not a look, just being polite. Making eye contact.” Scott defends. “Besides, I think Peter and Cora are back with the food and I’m far too hungry to worry about anything besides that.”

Scott jumps up then and is stealing the bag of food right out of Cora’s hand the second she walks into the room. It doesn’t take long for the entire pack to be surrounding any of the food that had gotten in the room. Derek and Stiles stay put on the couch until it dies down.

When Isaac glances over to ask what they wanted from the loot of food he saw Derek nuzzling into Stiles again and so he decides to go over and jump on top of them instead of saying anything. It ends up with him lying across the two of their laps which makes them both look at him annoyed. Until Stiles is squeezing his sides causing Isaac to seize up a little bit before falling onto the floor with a glare.

“You two are assholes.”

“But…” Stiles says.

“But I’m glad you’re both okay.” Isaac admits. “Although we don’t need to see you two making out all of the time. PDA is not my favorite thing.”

“Isaac, you and Cora were practically inseparable for the past week. You were constantly nosing at each other and doing all sorts of lovey things. So don’t be a hypocrite!” Stiles says.

“Fair.” Isaac says. “Now, let’s eat and be happy until we’re attacked by something else.”

“Good plan!” Stiles says, jumping up and giving Isaac a pat on the back, “Time to feast!”

**Author's Note:**

> Some relationship tags are eventual.


End file.
